Blackburn: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and your ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103. Around Blackburn, catching it before your motor turns normally leaves a drain and a full flush where it stands. Reading in advance? In that case the rest covers why it happens and how to prevent it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of modern diesels on the roads around Blackburn and Grange Lane carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. Your exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the gas to clean it, from its own tank.
There's a filler for every tank. Plenty of cars have a single flap for the two, whereas others move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in at each forecourt call-out, week in, week out. The AdBlue side is topped up far less often, normally from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. The error lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs around Blackburn
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
On a driveway off Thundercliffe Road before work, or in the car park outside Royal Oak on the way home: that's where the rushed top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low your car warns you, and if it is empty, limp mode kicks in.
Then the vehicle is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the tip once it has started. Hill Top or the heart of Blackburn: it takes the same few seconds either way.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A few seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you pour anything, on a drive in Richmond Park or a forecourt in Blackburn.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- Look inside your fuel flap: plenty of vehicles carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- Can't find it beside the diesel inlet? Then check below the bonnet or in the boot — the owner's manual will say where.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Meadowhall.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
When the light comes on, anywhere around South Yorkshire, follow this routine.
- Stop somewhere level, motor off, with time in hand — never rushing on the side of Barber Wood Road.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, yes, yet it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the vehicle on.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start the car: close the cap, check again, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Don't go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Blackburn already?
Short list, then. Top of that: your engine stays off. Don't switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Thinning it with more diesel fails, because AdBlue settles to the base instead of mixing — and that is where the fuel is pulled from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it is the Sainsbury's or the Texaco, ask the attendants to help roll the car clear of the pump. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway in Blackburn.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Blackburn lies under a mile from the M1; there, take the next junction. A short hop across Blackburn is a smaller job than a run towards Sheffield, under 5 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
What occurs when we arrive in Blackburn
Our engineers come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Blackburn Primary School, close to Blackburn Youth Club or on your own driveway. The replies determine the work and our quote, and so we ask what was put in, about how much, and if it has run. Nobody heads out before you've had our quote over the phone.
The system is then purged thoroughly, after your tank is drained. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Before we leave, our technicians fire it up and confirm that it's running smoothly.
If your motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Nothing upfront; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Blackburn itself
Blackburn is a suburban area in South Yorkshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 69 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Blackburn lies close to the city of Sheffield, approximately 3.9 miles away, and is near other local places such as Hill Top and Meadow Hall. Blackburn is part of the larger Sheffield urban area, with London being around 143.6 miles to the south. Blackburn has a population of around 1134 residents.
Blackburn and South Yorkshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Blackburn is a residential suburb, and our vans that cover it also work the places around it, Meadow Hall and Low Wincobank among them, across the S postcode area. Quote a postcode beginning S61 2, and the van gets there quickest.
Moving the car is not needed. Anywhere it sits — beside Yazier, on a layby en route to Barber Wood, on a drive — that's where it gets emptied. Assuming doesn't help behind Freddy, on a border, or anywhere hard to pin down; ring and check.
For Blackburn motorists, the short version
Tip no AdBlue until you've read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Leave the car off then phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, throughout South Yorkshire.