Bridge End: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case put this page down for now, leave the ignition and motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. In Bridge End, finding it before the engine runs usually means draining and a full flush on the spot. 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.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Not one fluid but two: that is what many modern diesels near Bridge End and Nether End run, with diesel for the engine. Your exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the gas to fresh it, from a separate tank.
Every tank has one filler of its own. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in on every forecourt visit, week in, week out. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less commonly. The error lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place around Bridge End
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
Haste comes from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a driveway off Over Lane, or on the way home in the car park at Prince Of Wales.
The old car's filler is where the hand reaches — but a hire car, a new car or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That's a second factor: an unfamiliar vehicle.
Nothing stops the pour once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Bridge End or out in Baslow.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Check these first, on a forecourt around Bridge End or a drive out in Bubnell. A few seconds, that's all.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally isn't. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- On plenty of vehicles, size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of cars say there which fuel goes where.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler is if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Grindleford? Check with the person who drove the car last before leaving, rather than once the light goes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Derbyshire that is.
- Stop somewhere level, motor off, with time in hand — not hurried on the side of Over Road.
- 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 two behind one flap? Then confirm the lid on your diesel filler is still closed ahead of raising the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Stage five is off limits.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Bridge End?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with no starting your engine. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch the vehicle on. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
Ask the staff to help push the car clear of the pump if you are on a forecourt — the BP, the The Co-operative or anywhere else. If you are on your own drive around Bridge End, leave the car where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the motor has already run. Bridge End lies under 15 miles from the M1; on it, use the first exit. A short hop across Bridge End is a smaller job than a run towards Sheffield, under 15 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
When our technicians turn up around Bridge End, what takes place?
The van comes to your car wherever it stopped — your own drive, beside St Anne's Church, or outside St Anne's CofE Primary School. Our engineers ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it's run, because the answers decide this work and our quote. The quote is given over the phone, before any van leaves.
Emptying that tank comes next, followed by a full flush of your system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that matters more here than with petrol. Once the filter has been flushed — or replaced, if needed — clean diesel is added, and then the car is tested. Your engine is fired up next and tested to confirm it runs correctly, all before we head off.
If the motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Your insurer will ask for the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. While we travel, take a look at your policy; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Bridge End, briefly
Bridge End is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Derbyshire, with a mix of detached housing and a population of around 1172 residents. Bridge End lies near the villages of Baslow and Over End, and is approximately 11 miles from the city of Sheffield. Bridge End is characterised by its relatively low elevation of 125 metres above sea level, and its location in the East Midlands region. Bridge End is also within commuting distance of major cities, being around 136 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Derbyshire, Bridge End included
Being a residential suburb, Bridge End shares its vans nearby places — Over End, West End — all the way across DE postcodes and the wider area beyond. A postcode starting DE45 1 gets our van to you fastest.
The vehicle doesn't need to move. The drain happens on the spot, whether a driveway, a street near Baslow Village Hall, or a layby on the way to Townend Wood. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Jubilee Rock, ring and ask rather than assuming.
For Bridge End drivers, the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway, leave the vehicle off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it waits, anywhere around Derbyshire.