Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Bridgehill: Why It Occurs
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and your ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103. In Bridgehill, catching it before your engine turns normally means a drain and a thorough flush where it stands. Not happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page covers the reasons it occurs and the ways to prevent it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Plenty of newer diesels around The Grove, like those in Bridgehill, run on two liquids; the motor gets just the diesel. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, and there spraying cleans the fumes.
Each tank has its own filler. Some vehicles keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot more place both together under one flap. Diesel goes in at every filling station visit, again and again. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less regularly, usually from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the mistake lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Bridgehill: how it happens
Carelessness seldom causes it. Instead is three things lining up at once.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from your car, and running dry leads to limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Pleasant View, perhaps at The Miners Arms on the way home that evening.
The old car's filler is where the hand reaches — but a rental car, a new motor or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That's a second factor: a strange car.
Nothing halts the tip after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Benfieldside or the middle of Bridgehill: it is the same few seconds either way.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Allensford or a forecourt in Bridgehill, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Read the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually are not.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Lift the filler flap and look for a label — plenty of vehicles mark what belongs in which filler just there.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by the diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Stocksfield, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
Anywhere in Durham the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Turn off once parked — level ground, engine stopped, and never in a rush by Barley Mill Road at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew it. It sounds silly. It does the trick.
- The diesel cap remains on. When the two share a flap, make sure it's closed before the bottle comes up.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start your car, shut the cap and look a second time that your diesel cap never came off.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Stage five is out.
Bridgehill: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the engine. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch the vehicle on. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is sucked from.
The staff at Tesco, Morrisons or another forecourt will normally help to push the car away when asked. If you are on your own driveway in Bridgehill, leave the vehicle where it sits.
Already started? Pull over when it is sensible, then switch off. Leave the A1(M) — under 15 miles out of Bridgehill — at the next exit. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Durham, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Bridgehill.
Bridgehill: what happens when our engineers turn up
Our van reaches the car wherever it stopped — your own drive, near Blackhill Baptist Church, or by St Mary's Catholic Primary School, Blackhill. Those replies decide this work and our quote, and so our engineers ask what went in, roughly how much, and if it has run. You get that quote by phone, before anyone sets off.
Emptying your tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and neither clears away by itself. Hence it counts more. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Before we go, we start the engine and confirm that it is running smoothly.
If the motor hasn't run, most 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 at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is included in many insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Bridgehill
Bridgehill is a suburban area situated on the riverside in County Durham, with a mix of semi-detached housing and a population of around 2218 residents. Bridgehill sits at an elevation of 154 metres, approximately 12.6 miles from the city of Durham and 242.5 miles from London. Bridgehill is located near other local places such as Benfieldside, Blackhill, and Shotley Bridge, in the North East region of England.
AdBlue drains around Bridgehill, and Durham beyond
As a residential suburb, Bridgehill shares its vans surrounding places — Blackhill, Shotley Bridge — all the way through DH postcodes and the wider area beyond. Give a postcode that starts DH8 8, and our van gets there fastest.
No need to shift the vehicle. Anywhere it stands — near Saint Andrew's Church, on a layby en route to Oakybank Wood, at home — that is where it gets emptied. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Our Blessed Lady Immaculate.
Bridgehill people: the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave the car off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it sits, anywhere in Durham.