Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Bonds
Stop here a minute if the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it's generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Bonds. Reading in advance? Then what follows explains why it comes about and what to prevent it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel feeds your motor — yet many current diesels driven around Bonds and Nook carry a second liquid as well. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There is a filler for each tank. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the arrangement on many cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in your boot instead. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. Much less frequently, the AdBlue side gets topped up — normally from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. It's in that gap that the slip happens.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen in Bonds?
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Haste comes from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a drive off Byerworth Lane North, or heading home in the car park outside Royal Oak Hotel.
The old car's cap is where the hand goes — but a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That's a second thing: a new car.
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 after it has started. It's seconds, whether out in Garstang or right in the centre of Bonds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Catterall or a forecourt in Bonds, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Read the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally are not.
- The size. On plenty of motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on many vehicles. Look for it.
- Can't see it beside the diesel filler? Then check below the bonnet or inside the boot — the handbook says which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Salwick.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
On the day the light comes on — anywhere it is in Lancashire — a routine to use.
- Switch off once parked — flat ground, motor off, and not rushed beside Dimples Lane at the roadside.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap works — after you have located your filler and read the cap.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where both share a flap, confirm it's shut before lifting the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, then look again — confirm the diesel filler stayed shut throughout. After that, start the car.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Stage five stays off limits.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Bonds already?
Brief list, then. First: your motor remains off. The fuel pump starts on many diesels as soon as your ignition is switched on — so keep it off. Topping up with diesel will not weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the base of your tank, right where the fuel is drawn from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it is the Harrison Oils or the another forecourt nearby, ask the attendants to help roll the vehicle away from the pump. If you're on your own drive around Bonds, leave the car where it stands.
Already started? Stop when it is safe, then turn off. Leave the M6 — under a mile out of Bonds — at the next exit. About how far did it go? Crossing Bonds is smaller a job than a trip of under 10 miles to Preston, so tell us.
Bonds: what takes place when our technicians arrive
Wherever the car came to rest, whether by St Mary and St Michael's Catholic Primary School, Garstang, near St Mary & St Michael or on your own drive, the van comes to it. What liquid got in, the quantity, and if it ran: our technicians ask because those replies set the work and quote. During the call itself, you are told the price — before dispatch.
The fuel system is then purged thoroughly, after that tank is emptied. 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. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Next our technicians fire it up and confirm it runs smoothly before leaving.
If your motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Nothing in advance; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. While we travel, take a look at your policy; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Bonds
Bonds is a village situated on the riverside in Lancashire, with a relatively low elevation of 22 metres. Bonds lies near the city of Preston, approximately 9.8 miles away, and is also close to other nearby places such as Garstang and Bowgreave. Bonds has a population of around 1237 people, predominantly living in detached housing. Bonds is located in the North West region of England, about 198.6 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Lancashire, Bonds included
Over PR postcodes, the teams covering Bonds — a village — work the nearby places too, Bruna Hill and Bowgreave among them. Fastest of all: give a PR3 1 postcode for the van.
The vehicle doesn't need to shift. Anywhere it stands — near St. Thomas's Parish Hall, in a lay-by heading to Moss Lane Playing Field, on a drive — that is where it gets drained. Assuming doesn't help at the back of St Thomas's, close to a border, or anywhere hard to describe; phone and ask.
The short version for Bonds drivers
Always, the cap; after that, the tip. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway, leave it off and ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it waits, anywhere around Lancashire.