Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Broad Clough: Why It Happens
Leave the motor and ignition off and call 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. A drain and a full flush, carried out right where the vehicle stands in Broad Clough, is usually all it takes when caught before your engine runs. The rest of this page explains why it takes place and how to ensure it does not — useful if you are reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
No single liquid but two: that is how plenty of newer diesels near Broad Clough and Greave carry, with diesel for the engine. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, your diesel side is topped up all the time. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less regularly, normally from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake grows in that gap between them.
Broad Clough: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a drive off Woodland View before work, or in the car park outside the pub in the village heading home: that's where the rushed top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low the vehicle warns you, and once it is gone, limp mode kicks in.
New-to-you vehicles are second, too. Hire cars, new cars and company vehicles put their fillers differently, and habit goes for the cap it used on the old one.
Lastly, the bottle fits: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in just as readily, and once the pour begins, no part halts it. Higher Broad Clough or the middle of Broad Clough: it takes the same few seconds in both.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
A few seconds is all these take — so check them before you tip anything, on a drive in Higher Change or a forecourt around Broad Clough.
- Position misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally do not.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of motors, the AdBlue one.
- Look inside the fuel flap: many cars have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- Can't find it beside the diesel inlet? Then look below the bonnet or in your boot — the owner's manual says where.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Walsden.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
Wherever in Lancashire the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Woodland Avenue, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park and switch off first.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" aloud as unscrewing it. It sounds daft. It works.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the car, shut the cap and check a second time that the diesel cap never opened off.
Discover at the second or third stage that the bottle went into the diesel tank? That is where you stop. Don't go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Broad Clough?
The short order of things, starting with no starting the motor. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch the car on. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is drawn from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
Ask the attendants to help roll the vehicle away from the petrol pump if you're on a forecourt — the Texaco, the Shell or somewhere else. On your own drive in Broad Clough? Then the car remains where it is.
When your motor has been run already, pull over somewhere safe and switch the vehicle off. Broad Clough sits under 10 miles from the M66; there, take the next junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Manchester, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Broad Clough.
Broad Clough: what occurs when we get there
By Bacup Thorn Primary School, close to Broadclough Dykes or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, we come to it. Which fluid was put in, the quantity, and if it ran: our technicians ask since the answers set the work and quote. You hear that quote on the phone, before anybody sets off.
Emptying your tank comes next, followed by a full flush of the system. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. A test comes at the end: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and the fuel filter is flushed or changed if necessary. Before we leave, our engineers start it and make sure that it is running smoothly.
Unrun cars usually need a half-hour job from arrival. The equipment is safe on a live forecourt, and hushed enough for a driveway after dark. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents your insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Wrong-fuel cover is part of many insurance policies — and so use the wait to look at yours.
About Broad Clough itself
Broad Clough is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Lancashire, with an elevation of 273 metres. Broad Clough lies near the towns of Bacup and Lane Head, and is close to the community of Higher Broad Clough. Broad Clough has a population of approximately 1167 people, predominantly living in terraced housing. Broad Clough is located 16.2 miles from Manchester and 175.5 miles from London.
AdBlue drains around Broad Clough, and Lancashire beyond
Bacup and Lane Head are among the places near Broad Clough, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, throughout OL postcodes. A postcode starting OL13 8 gets our van to you fastest.
Moving the vehicle isn't needed. Anywhere it sits — near Christ Church with St John, in a layby en route to Jeffry Barn Wood, at home — that's where it gets cleared. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Bacup Christ Church, ring and ask rather than assuming.
Broad Clough drivers: the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Keep the car switched off and call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, throughout Lancashire.