Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Blackhill
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and the ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103. A drain and a full flush, carried out just where your vehicle stands in Blackhill, is usually all it takes if caught before your engine runs. Reading before the event? In that case the rest explains how it happens and what to stop it ever happening.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
No single liquid but two: that is how many modern diesels around Blackhill and Bridgehill run, with diesel feeding the motor. Your exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the gas to fresh them, from its own tank.
Every tank has a filler of its own. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. Topping up your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. Far less often, the AdBlue side is topped up — mostly from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. That gap is where the mistake lives.
Blackhill: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
On a drive off Dixon Street before work, or in the car park outside The Cricketers on the way home: that's where the rushed top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low your car warns you, and once it is gone, limp mode kicks in.
Next, your hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old vehicle — since a hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not.
A spouted bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, once begun, carries on. Whether it happens in Consett or the middle of Blackhill, it is the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A couple of seconds is all these take — so check them before you tip anything, on a driveway in The Grove or a forecourt around Blackhill.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Check inside the fuel flap: many cars have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- Cannot see it beside the diesel inlet? Then look beneath the bonnet or in your boot — the owner's manual says where.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Stocksfield? Ask the person who drove the vehicle last before leaving, not when the light goes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
Wherever across Durham the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Pull in on level, engine off, with time to spare — never rushing on the side of Laburnum Avenue.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, perhaps, yet it works.
- The two under one flap? Then make sure the lid on the diesel filler stays shut ahead of raising the bottle.
- Finish once your tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; before that, tip gently through its own spout.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Stage five stays out.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Blackhill already?
Brief order, then. Top of it: your engine remains unstarted. The fuel pump starts on many diesels the moment the ignition is switched on — and so keep it off. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is drawn from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
The attendants at Tesco, Morrisons or any forecourt will normally lend a hand to push the vehicle clear when asked. If you are on your own drive around Blackhill, leave it where it stands.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the engine has already run. Come off the A1(M) — under 15 miles out of Blackhill — at the next junction. A short hop across Blackhill is a smaller job than a run towards Durham, under 15 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
Blackhill: what happens when our technicians turn up
Anywhere your car has stopped, be it by Benfieldside Primary School, beside Blackhill and Shotley Bridge Uniting Methodist Church or on your own drive, the van travels to it. Our technicians ask what was put in, about how much, and if it's run, since those answers decide the work and the price. You hear that price on the phone, before anybody sets off.
Then the tank is emptied and the fuel system cleaned thoroughly. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. After the fuel filter has been flushed — or replaced, if required — clean diesel goes in, and then the car is tested. We do not go until it has been started and is running smoothly.
If your engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Nothing upfront; you settle up that day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies — so use the wait to look at yours.
About Blackhill and where it is
Blackhill is a suburban area in County Durham, situated inland at an elevation of 223 metres, approximately 11.8 miles from the city of Durham. Blackhill is characterized by its terraced housing and is located near other local places such as Consett, Benfieldside, and Shotley Bridge. Blackhill has a population of around 4883 residents and is part of the wider Durham urban area, with the city of Durham being the nearest major city. Blackhill is also relatively distant from London, at around 242.3 miles away.
AdBlue drains around Blackhill, and Durham beyond
Being a residential suburb, Blackhill has the same vans as surrounding areas — Benfieldside, Shotley Bridge — right through DH postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. A postcode starting DH8 5 gets our van to you fastest.
The car remains put. The drain happens on the spot, whether a driveway, a road near Our Blessed Lady Immaculate, or a layby on the way to Blackhill & Consett Park. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you are near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Saint Andrew's Church.
The short version for Blackhill motorists
Pour nothing till you have read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave the car off and call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it waits, anywhere across Durham.