Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Boothstown: Why It Happens
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and your ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Boothstown. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the page covers the why it happens and the how to avoid it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Diesel feeds the motor — yet plenty of newer diesels seen round Boothstown and Mosley Common carry a second liquid as well. Your exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the fumes to fresh it, from a separate tank.
Every tank comes with a filler of its own. Other vehicles keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty more place both together under one flap. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. Seldom topped up, AdBlue usually goes in out of a bottle, tipped by someone who must stop and think which cap to use. It's in the gap that the error happens.
Boothstown: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
On a driveway off Haydock Drive before work, or in the car park at The Moorings on the way home: that's where the hurried top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low the vehicle tells you, and if it is empty, limp mode follows.
Then the car is strange. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Third, the spout goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in just as easily, and once the pour begins, no part halts it. Ellenbrook or the middle of Boothstown: it is the same few seconds in both.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Whether a Boothstown forecourt or a driveway over in Worsley, spend a couple of seconds on these before anything is poured in.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Go by the cap, not its position.
- Many cars give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Check for it.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler sits if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- The previous driver knows. Check when you collect a rental or fleet car — from Walkden's car park, perhaps — rather than when the warning appears.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
When the light comes on, wherever in Greater Manchester, follow this routine.
- Turn off after you park — flat ground, motor stopped, and not rushed by Ellenbrook Road at the roadside.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap works — once you have located your filler and read it.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where both sit under a flap, make sure it is closed before lifting the bottle.
- Stop once that tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; until then, tip slowly through the own spout.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Find at stage two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? So stop right there. Do not go on to stage five.
Boothstown: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Short order, then. First: the engine remains unstarted. Keep your ignition off too, because on plenty of diesels switching it on by itself runs your pump. Thinning it with more diesel won't work, because AdBlue settles to the base instead of blending — and that's where the fuel is sucked from.
The staff at Esso, BP or any forecourt will usually lend a hand to push the car away if you ask. Your own driveway around Boothstown is the place it should stay.
When your motor has been run already, pull over safely then switch the car off. Boothstown sits under a mile from the M60; there, take the next junction. A short hop across Boothstown is a smaller job than a run towards Salford, under 10 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
What takes place when our engineers get there around Boothstown
Outside St Andrew's CofE Primary School, close to Boothstown Library or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, our technicians come to it. The replies decide this work and the quote, so our technicians ask what went in, about how much, and if it's run. The quote is given on the call, before any van leaves.
Your system is then purged thoroughly, after that tank is emptied. Much more than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: the crystals form, some metals corrode, and nothing clears away on its own, no matter how long it sits. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Before we leave, we start the car and make sure that it is running correctly.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour once our technicians arrive, provided the motor has not run — and the pumps our engineers use are safe on a live forecourt yet quiet at night beside a house. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork an insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. It's worth looking at your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Boothstown, for a moment
Boothstown is a suburban area in Greater Manchester, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 49 metres. Boothstown lies approximately 5 miles from Salford and is part of the larger urban landscape of the North West region. Boothstown has a mix of housing types, with semi-detached homes being predominant. Boothstown is close to nearby places such as Ellenbrook and Parr Fold.
AdBlue drains around Boothstown and across Greater Manchester
Over M postcodes, the vans that cover Boothstown — a residential suburb — work the nearby places too, New Manchester and Parr Fold included. Quote a postcode that starts M28 1, and our van arrives fastest.
The vehicle remains where it is. Anywhere it stands — near Boothstown Community Centre, in a layby heading to Boothsbank Park, on a drive — that's where it gets drained. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Lord Ellesmere's Memorial, ring and ask rather than guessing.
In short, for Boothstown people
Read the cap before you tip. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere in Greater Manchester, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — so leave the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103.