AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Bramhall Moor: How It Happens and How to Prevent It
Stop here a minute if your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then ring 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, carried out just where your vehicle stands around Bramhall Moor, is usually what it takes if caught before your engine runs. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page explains the why it occurs and the ways to avoid it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
No single liquid but two: that's what many modern diesels around Bramhall Moor and Norbury Moor carry, with diesel for the motor. The exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the fumes to clean them, from a separate tank.
Different tanks, different fillers. Other vehicles put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others have both side by side under one flap. At the petrol pump, your diesel side is topped up constantly. Rarely topped up, AdBlue normally comes from a bottle, tipped by a driver who has to stop and think what filler it needs. The slip lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank take place in Bramhall Moor?
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a drive off Birch Drive before work, or in the car park outside Flying Coach heading home: that is where the hurried top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low the vehicle warns you, and once it's empty, limp mode follows.
Then the vehicle is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spouted bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, after begun, keeps on. Stepping Hill or the middle of Bramhall Moor: it takes the same few seconds either way.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Stockport Great Moor or a forecourt around Bramhall Moor, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- Plenty of motors fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Look inside your fuel flap: plenty of vehicles carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says where it is when the filler isn't next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Hazel Grove? Ask the person who drove the vehicle last before you set off, rather than once the light goes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Greater Manchester that is.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Station View.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap works — once you have located the filler and read it.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, and check again — confirm your diesel filler remained shut throughout. Only then, start your car.
Find at the second or third step that AdBlue went in the wrong filler? That is where you stop. Never go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Bramhall Moor?
The short order of things, starting with not starting your motor. The fuel pump starts on many diesels as soon as your ignition is switched on — so keep it off. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
The attendants at Sainsbury's, Shell or any forecourt will usually help to push your car clear if asked. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive in Bramhall Moor.
Where the engine has run by now, stop somewhere safe and switch it off. Bramhall Moor sits under 3 miles from the M60; there, take the next junction. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Bramhall Moor is smaller work than a run of under 10 miles towards Manchester, and so tell us.
What happens when our technicians arrive around Bramhall Moor
Our engineers come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside St Peter's Catholic Primary School, close to Norbury Cricket and Lacrosse Club or on your own drive. What liquid got in, the quantity, and whether it ran: we ask since the answers set the work and price. That quote is given on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
The system is then purged thoroughly, once that tank is emptied. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and neither clears out by itself. That is why it counts more. The filter cleaned or, where needed, replaced; fresh diesel in; then a test of your car. After that our engineers start the car and check it runs correctly before leaving.
Using pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where the motor has not run take about half an hour after our technicians arrive. No money upfront; you settle up that day. At the end, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Bramhall Moor and where it is
Bramhall Moor is a suburban area in Greater Manchester, situated approximately 8 miles south of Manchester city centre. Bramhall Moor sits at an elevation of around 89 metres, with a mix of semi-detached housing and local amenities. Bramhall Moor is close to nearby places such as Stepping Hill and Hazel Grove, and is part of the wider commuter belt around Manchester. Bramhall Moor has a population of around 3960 people, living in a predominantly suburban environment.
AdBlue drains round Bramhall Moor, and Greater Manchester beyond
Bramhall Moor is a residential suburb, and our teams that cover it also work the towns around it, Hazel Grove and Woods Moor among them, across the SK postcode area. Quote a postcode beginning SK7 5, and the van gets there fastest.
Moving your car isn't necessary. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street near St Peter's, a lay-by on the way to Mirrlees Fields, a drive. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Full Gospel Church, ring and ask instead of guessing.
In short, for Bramhall Moor drivers
Read the cap before you tip. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere across Greater Manchester, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same — and so leave the car off then ring 0333 366 0103.