Bridge End: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and the ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Bridge End. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of current diesels on the roads round Bridge End and Wooley carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, and there a spray treats the gas.
Each tank comes with one filler of its own. Many of vehicles share a single flap for both, while some put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, the diesel side gets filled constantly. Far less frequently, the AdBlue side is topped up — mostly from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. The mistake grows in the gap between them.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank happen around Bridge End?
It is hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the car goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off The Peth before work, or in the car park outside Allendale Inn on the way home.
The old car's cap is where the hand goes — yet a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That is a second thing: a new motor.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the tip once it has started. It's seconds, be it out in Allendale Town or right in the heart of Bridge End.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Check these first, at a forecourt in Bridge End or a drive out in Catton. A few seconds, no more.
- Check the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually aren't.
- On many vehicles, the size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Check for it.
- The handbook says where it lives when the filler is not next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park at Haydon Bridge? Ask whoever drove the car last before you set off, not once the light goes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
Anywhere around Northumberland the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Switch off after you park — level ground, motor off, and not in a rush beside B6303 on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the vehicle on.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Before you start the vehicle, close the cap and look again that your diesel cap never came off.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Never go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Bridge End?
The short order of things, starting with no starting your motor. The fuel pump starts on many diesels as soon as the ignition goes on — and so leave it off. Topping up with diesel won't thin it: instead, AdBlue drops to the base of the tank, just where the fuel is drawn from.
The staff at the nearest petrol station, another forecourt nearby or any forecourt will usually lend a hand to push the car away if you ask. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway around Bridge End.
Already started? Stop when it is safe, then switch off. On the M6, under 25 miles from Bridge End, that means the next junction. A short hop across Bridge End is a smaller job than a run towards Newcastle upon Tyne, under 50 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
Bridge End: what occurs when our technicians get there
Wherever the car came to rest, be it outside Allendale Primary School, beside Wesleyan Trinity Methodist Church or at home, the van comes to it. Both the work and our quote depend on three replies — what liquid, what quantity, and whether it's run — so our technicians ask. No one sets off until you have heard the price over the phone.
The system is then rinsed thoroughly, once that tank is cleared. More than with petrol, it matters here: the crystals form, some metals are attacked, and nothing washes away on its own, no matter how long it sits. Filter flushed or, if it must be, swapped; clean diesel in; and then a test of your vehicle. Before we go, our technicians start the engine and check that it's running properly.
If your engine hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents your insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. It's worth looking at your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Bridge End, briefly
Bridge End is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Northumberland, with a mix of semi-detached housing and a relatively small population of around 732 residents. Bridge End sits at an elevation of 221 metres, overlooking the surrounding countryside. Bridge End is located near several nearby places, including Allendale Town, Thornley Gate, and Shilburn, and is approximately 26 miles from Newcastle upon Tyne. Bridge End is also relatively distant from London, at around 250 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Northumberland, Bridge End included
As a residential suburb, Bridge End has the same vans as nearby areas — Thornley Gate, Shilburn — right through NE postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. Fastest of all: give a NE47 9 postcode to the van.
The car remains where it is. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street close to Museum of Classic Sci-Fi, a lay-by on the way to Shieldburn Plantation, a drive. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Allendale Cricket Club.
The short version for Bridge End motorists
Read the cap before you pour. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Keep it off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, throughout Northumberland.