How It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Brampton
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and your ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Brampton. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Many modern diesels around Boothby, like those in Brampton, run on two fluids; your engine gets only the diesel. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust stream and cleans it.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the layout on many motors. On others, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in your boot instead. Diesel goes in on each forecourt call-out, week in, week out. Seldom topped up, AdBlue usually goes in from a bottle, tipped by a driver who has to stop and think which filler to use. It is in the gap that the mistake lives.
Brampton: how AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
On a driveway off Market Place before work, or in the car park outside Nags Head heading home: that's where the rushed top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low the vehicle warns you, and if it is gone, limp mode follows.
The old car's cap is where your hand goes — yet a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That's a second factor: a new motor.
A spout-topped bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, once begun, keeps on. It's seconds, be it out in The Sands or bang in the heart of Brampton.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Milton or a forecourt in Brampton, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Trust the cap, not its position.
- The size. On plenty of motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many motors say there which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler sits if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Whoever had it before knows. Ask when you collect a rental or company car — at Brampton (Cumbria)'s car park, say — rather than once the light appears.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
For the day the warning comes on — anywhere it is around Cumbria — a routine to use.
- Not in a rush on the side of Craw Hall, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park then switch off first.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you have found the filler and read the cap.
- The two under a single flap? So make sure the lid on the diesel side stays closed before raising the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before you start your car, shut the cap and look a second time that the diesel cap was never came off.
Discover at the second or third stage that AdBlue went into the wrong tank? That is where you stop. Never go on to step five.
Brampton: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
The short order of things, starting with not starting the engine. Keep your ignition off too, because on plenty of diesels switching it on alone runs your fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
Ask the attendants to help push the car away from the pump if you're on a forecourt — the Sands Garage, the Shell or anywhere else. Your own drive around Brampton is where it should stay.
Already started? Stop once it's sensible, then turn off. Come off the M6 — under 10 miles out of Brampton — at the first exit. Distance counts — a quick hop across Brampton is a smaller job than driving under 10 miles towards Carlisle — so tell us about how far it went.
Brampton: what happens when our technicians turn up
Anywhere the vehicle has stopped, be it by Brampton Primary School, beside Brampton Library or at home, the van comes to it. Which liquid got in, the quantity, and if it ran: we ask because the replies decide both work and quote. Nobody heads out until you have heard our price over the phone.
Then your tank is emptied and the system flushed thoroughly. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own. The filter flushed or, where needed, swapped; fresh diesel in; then a test of your car. Then our engineers fire it up and make sure it runs correctly before we go.
If the engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork your insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Before we get there, have a look at your policy; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Brampton itself
Brampton is a town in Cumbria, situated inland near the city of Carlisle, with The Sands, Great Easby, and Low Geltbridge nearby. Brampton has a population of around 4546 people and is characterized by semi-detached housing. Brampton sits at an elevation of 76 metres, approximately 260 miles northwest of London. Brampton remains a residential community with a mix of local amenities and services.
Brampton and Cumbria: AdBlue drains across the area
Brampton is a town, and the teams that cover it also work the towns around it, Great Easby and Low Geltbridge among them, across the CA postcode area. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting CA8 1.
There's no need to shift the car. Draining happens on the spot, whether a drive, a street by Borders Methodist Church @ Brampton, or a lay-by on the way to Murray Park. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of The Hut.
In short, for Brampton motorists
Read the cap before you tip. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless, leave it off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere around Cumbria.