How It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Bramham
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case set this page aside for now, keep your ignition and engine off, and call 0333 366 0103. Usually, if your engine hasn't run, it is emptied and fully cleaned where your car is around Bramham. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it does not.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Diesel goes to your motor — yet plenty of modern diesels seen around Bramham and Newton Kyme carry another liquid as well. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust gas and cleans it.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the layout on a lot of motors. On others, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. At the pump, the diesel side gets filled all the time. Much less regularly, the AdBlue side is topped up — mostly from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. Mistakes happen in the gap between them.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Bramham: how it takes place
It is hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Town Hill before work, or in the car park at The Red Lion on the way home.
Then, the hand goes for the cap it knew on the old motor — since a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
No part stops the tip after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it takes place in Clifford or the middle of Bramham, it's the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Toulston or a forecourt around Bramham.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Trust the cap, not its position.
- On plenty of cars, size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Open the flap and look for a label — plenty of vehicles show which goes in each filler just there.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by your diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before knows. Check when you collect a rental or company car — from Garforth's car park, say — rather than once the light appears.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across West Yorkshire that is.
- Turn off after you park — flat ground, motor off, and never in a rush beside Tenter Hill on the verge.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" aloud while unscrewing it. It seems daft. It works.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Don't go on to stage five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Bramham?
Do not start your motor: that is how the short order of things starts. Keep the ignition off as well, because on plenty of diesels switching it on by itself runs your pump. Filling up with diesel won't weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the bottom of your tank, just where the fuel is taken from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it's the Boston Spa Garage or the Esso, ask the attendants to help roll the vehicle away from the pump. On your own drive in Bramham? Then the car stays where it is.
When the motor has run by now, pull over safely then switch the vehicle off. Bramham sits under a mile from the A1(M); there, take the first exit. A short hop across Bramham is a smaller job than a run towards Leeds, under 10 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
When our engineers get there in Bramham, what happens?
Anywhere the vehicle has stopped, whether outside Bramham Primary School, beside Bramham Village Hall or on your own drive, the van travels to it. The answers determine this work and the price, so our technicians ask what was put in, about how much, and if it's run. You hear that quote by phone, before anyone heads out.
Your system is then cleaned thoroughly, once the tank is cleared. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and neither washes away unaided. That is why it matters more. Filter flushed or, where it must be, swapped; fresh diesel in; then a test of your vehicle. Your engine is started next and tested to confirm it runs properly, all before our engineers head off.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour once our technicians get there, provided your motor hasn't run — and the pumps we use are safe on a live forecourt yet quiet at night outside a house. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork an insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. While we travel, have a look at your insurance documents; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Bramham and where it is
Bramham is a village situated on the banks of the River Wharfe in West Yorkshire, with a mix of rural and riverside scenery. Bramham has a population of around 1255 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Bramham is located near to several other villages, including Clifford, Boston Spa, and Thorp Arch, and is approximately 9.7 miles from the city of Leeds.
AdBlue drains around Bramham, and West Yorkshire beyond
Over LS postcodes, our teams that cover Bramham — a village — work the nearby locations too, Thorp Arch and Boston Spa included. Quickest of all: give a LS23 6 postcode for our van.
The car does not need to move. Draining takes place right there, be it a drive, a street near All Saints Church, or a layby on the way to Bramham Recreation Ground. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of St Luke's.
In short, for Bramham motorists
Before you tip, read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Keep the vehicle switched off then phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, throughout West Yorkshire.