Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Boustead Hill
Leave your engine and ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Around Boustead Hill, catching it before your engine runs normally means a drain and a full flush on the spot. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Many modern diesels on the roads about Boustead Hill and Longrigg carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust stream to clean it.
There is a filler on every tank. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, your diesel side gets filled constantly. Far less regularly, the AdBlue side gets filled — mostly from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. That gap is where the mistake lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Boustead Hill: how it occurs
It is hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from the car, and letting it run out means limp mode — so a rushed top-up, maybe before work off West End Croft, perhaps outside the pub in the village on the way home that evening.
Unfamiliar vehicles come next, as well. Hire cars, new vehicles and company cars place their fillers differently, and habit reaches for the cap it used on the old one.
No part halts the pour once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Dykesfield or the middle of Boustead Hill: it is the same few seconds either way.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Look at these before pouring, on a forecourt around Boustead Hill or a drive over in Drumburgh. A few seconds, that's all.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally don't.
- The size. On plenty of cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Lift the flap and check for a label — plenty of vehicles show which goes in which inlet right there.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where your 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 outside Gretna Green? Check with whoever drove the car last before you set off, rather than when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
On the day the warning comes on — wherever it is across Cumbria — a simple routine to follow.
- Turn off once parked — level ground, engine off, and not rushed beside Lawrence Lane at the roadside.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, yes, but it works.
- The diesel cap remains on. When both share a flap, make sure it's shut before lifting the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, then check again — making sure the diesel filler stayed closed throughout. After that, start your car.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Skip step five entirely.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Boustead Hill already?
The short order of things, beginning with no starting the engine. The fuel pump starts on many diesels the moment your ignition is switched on — so leave it off. Topping up with diesel will not weaken it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the base of your tank, right where the fuel is taken from.
The attendants at the nearest petrol station, another forecourt nearby or any forecourt will usually help pushing the car away when you ask. On your own drive in Boustead Hill? So your car remains where it is.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Come off the M6 — under 10 miles out of Boustead Hill — at the first exit. Mileage matters — a short hop across Boustead Hill is a smaller job than heading under 10 miles to Carlisle — so tell us roughly how far it went.
What happens when we get there in Boustead Hill
The van comes to your car wherever it stopped — your own drive, beside Milecastle 73 (site of), or by Kirkbampton CofE School. Those answers settle the work and the price, and so our engineers ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it has run. You hear that quote by phone, before anybody heads out.
Emptying that tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the system. More than with petrol, it counts here: the crystals form, certain metals are attacked, and none of that clears away unaided, no matter how long it is left. After your filter is cleaned — or replaced, where needed — clean diesel is added, and then the car is tested. Your engine is started next and tested to confirm it runs correctly, all before our technicians head off.
Unrun cars usually mean a half-hour visit from the moment we arrive. The equipment is safe on a busy filling station, and hushed enough for a residential street late at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. While we travel, take a look at your policy; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Boustead Hill itself
Boustead Hill is a small coastal hamlet in Cumbria, situated near the city of Carlisle and close to the nearby places of Dykesfield, Easton, and Longburgh. Boustead Hill sits at a low elevation of around 12 metres, reflecting its coastal setting. Boustead Hill is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, which is typical of many rural areas in the region.
AdBlue drains across Cumbria, Boustead Hill included
Over CA postcodes, our vans covering Boustead Hill — a rural hamlet — work the surrounding locations too, Longburgh and Easton included. A postcode starting CA5 6 gets the van to you fastest.
Your car remains put. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Holy Well wood, a side street near Milecastle (site of): we drain the vehicle where it sits. Guessing doesn't help at the back of St Peter, close to a border, or somewhere awkward to describe; ring and ask.
In short, for Boustead Hill people
Before you tip, read the cap. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it where it is, anywhere around Cumbria: keep the vehicle off and ring 0333 366 0103.