AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Bradway Bank: Why It Happens and How to Stop It
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then set this page down for now, leave your ignition and engine off, then call 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, done just where your vehicle sits around Bradway Bank, is normally what it needs when found before your motor runs. The remainder of this page explains why it happens and how to make sure it does not — useful if you are reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel feeds the motor — yet plenty of modern diesels seen round Bradway Bank and Bradway carry a second liquid too. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Plenty of motors have a single flap for the two, while some move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Topping up the diesel side at the petrol pump happens all the time. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less commonly. It is in that gap that the error lives.
Bradway Bank: how AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
On a driveway off Wollaton Road before work, or in the car park at Old Mother Redcap on the way home: that's where the hurried top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it is empty, limp mode follows.
Then, the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old car — since a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers where your last one didn't.
Nothing stops the tip after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it takes place in Totley Rise or the middle of Bradway Bank, it is the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Check these before pouring, at a forecourt around Bradway Bank or a driveway out in Totley Brook. Seconds, that's all.
- Position can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally do not.
- Plenty of vehicles fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Check inside your fuel flap: many motors carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- Can't see it beside the diesel filler? Then check beneath the bonnet or inside your boot — the owner's manual says where.
- Whoever had it before knows. Ask when you pick up a hire car or company car — at Dore & Totley's car park, perhaps — not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
Wherever around South Yorkshire the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Turn off after you park — level ground, engine stopped, and never rushed beside Prospect Road on the verge.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, yes, yet it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start your car: close the cap, check again, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Never go on to stage five.
Bradway Bank: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Don't start the motor: that's where the short order of things begins. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch the car on. Topping up with diesel will not thin it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the base of the tank, right where the fuel is drawn from.
Ask the staff to help roll the vehicle clear of the petrol pump if you are at a forecourt — the Esso, the JET or anywhere else. If you're on your own driveway around Bradway Bank, leave the car where it sits.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your motor has already run. Come off the M1 — under 10 miles out of Bradway Bank — at the first junction. About how far did it go? Hopping across Bradway Bank is smaller work than a trip of under 5 miles towards Sheffield, so say.
When our engineers get there around Bradway Bank, what happens?
Outside Bradway Primary School, near Totley Rise Methodist Church or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, we come to it. Our engineers ask what went in, roughly how much, and if it's run, since those answers determine this work and the price. That price is given on the call, before any van leaves.
Draining that tank comes next, then a thorough flush of your system. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own. The filter flushed or, where it must be, replaced; clean diesel in; then a test of your car. The motor is fired up next and tested to confirm it runs correctly, all before our technicians head off.
Using pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the engine has not run take about half an hour after our engineers are there. Your insurer will ask for the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both once this job is done. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. Wrong-fuel cover is part of many insurance policies — so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Bradway Bank itself
Bradway Bank is a suburban area situated near the River Sheaf in South Yorkshire, with a mix of semi-detached housing and local amenities. Bradway Bank sits at an elevation of 193 metres, overlooking the surrounding countryside and the nearby city of Sheffield. Bradway Bank is located close to several other suburban areas, including Totley Rise, Upper Bradway, and Abbeydale Park, and is approximately 4.8 miles from Sheffield city centre.
Bradway Bank and South Yorkshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Over S postcodes, our teams covering Bradway Bank — a residential suburb — work the nearby locations too, Abbeydale Park and Upper Bradway among them. A postcode starting S17 4 gets our van to you fastest.
There's no need to move the vehicle. Draining takes place right there, whether a drive, a road near Abbeydale Sports Club, or a layby on the way to Poynton Wood. Assuming won't help at the back of St John the Evangelsist Abbeydale, close to a border, or somewhere awkward to describe; ring and check.
In short, for Bradway Bank people
Read the cap before you pour. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave it off then call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it waits, anywhere in South Yorkshire.