How It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Blackbrook
Keep your engine and ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Normally, if the motor hasn't turned, it is emptied and thoroughly rinsed where your vehicle sits around Blackbrook. Not happened yet? Below, the page explains the why it happens and the ways to avoid it altogether.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Plenty of current diesels on the roads about Blackbrook and Laffak carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Other cars keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others place the two together behind one flap. Diesel goes in on every filling station call-out, week in, week out. The AdBlue side is topped up far less frequently, normally from a bottle, and usually by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank take place around Blackbrook?
Carelessness seldom explains it. Instead is three things coming up together.
Haste comes from the warning. The vehicle warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a driveway off Platts Street, or on the way home in the car park at The Owls Nest.
Then the car is strange. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Lastly, the spout fits: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in as readily, and after the tip starts, nothing stops it. Whether it occurs in Stanley Bank or the middle of Blackbrook, it is the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Whether a Blackbrook forecourt or a drive out in Broad Oak, take a few seconds on these before anything is poured in.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- Many motors give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Check for it.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler is if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Garswood? Check with whoever drove it last before you set off, not when the light goes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Merseyside that is.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Juddfield Street.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Find during the second or third step that the bottle went into the diesel filler? That's where you stop. Never carry on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Blackbrook?
Do not start your engine: that's where the short order of things begins. Leave the ignition off too, since on many diesels it alone starts your fuel pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is sucked from — so do not top up with diesel to thin it.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it's the BP or the Horseshoe Garage, ask the staff to help push the vehicle clear of the pump. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway around Blackbrook.
Already run? Stop when it is sensible, then turn off. Come off the M6 — under 3 miles out of Blackbrook — at the next junction. A short hop across Blackbrook is a smaller job than a run towards Liverpool, under 15 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
When our technicians get there around Blackbrook, what takes place?
Our engineers come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Legh Vale Primary School, close to St Mark or on your own drive. Both the work and our quote rest on three replies — what fluid, what quantity, and if it's run — so we ask. Nobody heads out until you've heard the quote over the phone.
Then your tank is emptied and your system cleaned thoroughly. Much more than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: crystals form, some metals are attacked, and nothing washes out unaided, however long it sits. Testing is at the end: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and your filter is flushed or changed as needed. We do not go until it has been fired up and is running properly.
Unstarted vehicles mostly mean a half-hour visit after the moment we arrive. The kit is safe on a busy forecourt, and quiet enough for a driveway late at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It is worth checking your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Blackbrook and where it is
Blackbrook is a suburban area in Merseyside, situated near the riverside with an elevation of 41 metres. Blackbrook lies approximately 12.5 miles from Liverpool and is surrounded by nearby places such as Stanley Bank, Pewfall, and Haydock. Blackbrook has a population of around 5588 people and predominantly features semi-detached housing. Blackbrook is located in the North West region of England, about 173.1 miles from London.
Blackbrook and Merseyside: AdBlue drains across the area
Blackbrook is a residential suburb, and the vans that cover it also work the towns near it, Pewfall and Haydock among them, across the WA postcode area. Fastest of all: quote a WA11 0 postcode to our van.
There's no need to shift the car. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near Stanley Mill, a lay-by on the way to Stanley Bank Wood, a drive. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of St Mary Immaculate.
In short, for Blackbrook motorists
Before you pour, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere around Merseyside, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — so leave the car off and ring 0333 366 0103.