AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Bow Broom: How It Happens and How to Stop It
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. Normally, if the engine has not run, it's emptied and fully purged where the vehicle is around Bow Broom. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it does not.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Diesel feeds the engine — but plenty of modern diesels seen about Bow Broom and Mexborough carry another liquid as well. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, and there a spray treats the gas.
There's a filler on each tank. Many of cars share a single flap for both, while others put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, your diesel side gets filled constantly. The AdBlue side is topped up far less often, usually from a bottle, and usually by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake lives in that gap.
Bow Broom: how AdBlue in the diesel tank happens
It's seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from the car, and letting it run out means limp mode — so a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Bower Road, or at The Butchers Arms on the way home after work.
Then, your hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old motor — since a rental car, a new car or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
A spouted bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, after begun, carries on. Whether it occurs in Swinton Bridge or the middle of Bow Broom, it is the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Whether a Bow Broom forecourt or a driveway over in Dolcliffe Common, take a few seconds over these before any is poured in.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Trust the cap, not its position.
- On plenty of motors, size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many cars say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by your diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Swinton (South Yorks)? Ask the person who drove the car last before leaving, rather than when the light goes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across South Yorkshire that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Thomas Street, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park then switch off first.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where the two sit under a flap, make sure it is closed before lifting the bottle.
- Stop when your tank fills or the bottle is empty; until then, tip slowly using its own spout.
- Close the cap, then look once more — confirm the diesel cap stayed shut throughout. Only then, start the car.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Leave out stage five entirely.
Bow Broom: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Do not start the engine: that is how the short order of things begins. Don't switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is pulled from.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it's the JET or the Tesco, ask the attendants to help push the car clear of the petrol pump. On your own drive in Bow Broom? So the vehicle remains put.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your engine has already run. On the M18, under 5 miles from Bow Broom, that means the next exit. A short hop across Bow Broom is a smaller job than a run towards Doncaster, under 10 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
Our arrival around Bow Broom, and what happens next
By Swinton Queen Primary School, near Civic Hall or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, we come to it. Those replies determine this work and the quote, and so we ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether it has run. You get that quote by phone, before anyone sets off.
Emptying your tank comes next, then a full flush of the system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more here than with petrol. The filter flushed or, where it must be, swapped; clean diesel in; and then a test of your car. We don't leave until it has been fired up and is running smoothly.
If the motor 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 after dark. Your insurer usually wants the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Bow Broom, briefly
Bow Broom is a suburban area situated on the riverside in South Yorkshire, with a mix of terraced housing and local amenities. Bow Broom lies close to the nearby settlements of Swinton Bridge and Swinton, and is approximately 7.6 miles from Doncaster. Bow Broom has a population of around 4386 residents, living in an area with an average elevation of 35 metres. Bow Broom is located near Highwoods, with the city of Doncaster providing nearby services and facilities.
AdBlue drains across South Yorkshire, Bow Broom included
Swinton and Highwoods are among the places near Bow Broom, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, throughout S postcodes. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting S64 8.
No need to move the vehicle. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Walker Street Park, a side street near Swinton Community Library: our engineers drain the car where it sits. Guessing doesn't help behind St Johns, close to a boundary, or anywhere hard to pin down; ring and check.
In short, for Bow Broom people
Read the cap before you pour. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will empty it wherever it stands, anywhere in South Yorkshire: keep it off and call 0333 366 0103.