How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Brotherton
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and the ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103. A drain and a full flush, done just where your vehicle stands in Brotherton, is normally all it needs when found before your engine runs. Nothing happened yet? Below, the rest of the page explains the reasons it takes place and the how to avoid it for good.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Many modern diesels in Water Fryston, as well as Brotherton, run on two fluids; your motor gets just the diesel. Your exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the gas to fresh it, from its own tank.
Every tank has a filler of its own. Some motors keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others have the two together under one flap. Diesel goes in at every filling station visit, again and again. Much less regularly, the AdBlue side is filled — mostly from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. That gap is where the mistake lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank happens around Brotherton
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
Haste follows from the warning. The car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a driveway off Church Street, or on the way home in the car park at The Golden Lion.
The old car's filler is where your hand goes — but a rental car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That is a second thing: a strange car.
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. Whether it happens in Byram or the middle of Brotherton, it's the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Holmfield or a forecourt in Brotherton.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Go by the cap, not its position.
- On many cars, the size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Look inside your fuel flap: plenty of vehicles carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows which it is if the filler is not next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Whoever had it before will know. Check when you collect a rental or fleet car — from Knottingley's car park, perhaps — not when the light appears.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
When the light goes on, wherever around North Yorkshire, follow this routine.
- Switch off once parked — level ground, motor stopped, and never in a rush by High Street 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.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Stop when that tank fills or the bottle runs dry; until then, pour slowly using its built-in spout.
- Before you start the car, shut the cap and check again that your diesel cap never came off.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Don't go on to stage five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Brotherton?
Don't start the motor: that's where the short order of things starts. Leave your ignition off too, because on plenty of diesels switching it on by itself runs your pump. Filling up with diesel won't weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the base of your tank, right where fuel is drawn from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it's the Morrisons or the Esso, ask the staff to help roll the vehicle away from the pump. On your own drive around Brotherton? So the vehicle stays put.
Already run? Pull over when it's safe, then turn off. On the A1(M), under a mile from Brotherton, that means the next junction. About how far did it go? Hopping across Brotherton is smaller work than a run of under 10 miles towards Wakefield, so say.
When our engineers arrive around Brotherton, what happens?
Anywhere the car came to rest, be it by Brotherton and Byram Community Primary Academy, near St Edward the Confessor or at home, our van comes to it. The replies decide this work and the price, and so our technicians ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether it has run. During the phone call itself, you are told our price — before anything else.
Emptying your tank comes next, followed by a thorough 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, and so it does not wash out on its own. Filter flushed or, if needed, replaced; fresh diesel in; and then a test of the vehicle. Your engine is fired up next and checked to make sure it runs properly, all before we head off.
Unstarted vehicles usually mean a half-hour visit from the moment we arrive. The equipment is safe on a live filling station, and quiet enough for a residential street after dark. No money upfront; you settle up on the day. At the end, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Misfuelling cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Brotherton
Brotherton is a small village in North Yorkshire, situated on the banks of the River Aire at an elevation of around 27 metres. Brotherton lies near the towns of Wakefield and Ferrybridge, with the villages of Byram and Sutton also in the vicinity. Brotherton has a population of approximately 609 people, predominantly living in detached houses. Brotherton is located about 9.8 miles from Wakefield and 160.7 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across North Yorkshire, Brotherton included
Sutton and Ferrybridge are among the places around Brotherton, a village, that the same teams cover, throughout WF postcodes. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting WF11 9.
The car doesn't need to move. We drain it where it is — a side street near Brotherton War Memorial, a lay-by on the way to Brotherton & Byram Rugby Pitch, a drive. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Byram Parish Hall.
Brotherton drivers: the short version
Read the cap before you tip. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Keep the car switched off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, throughout North Yorkshire.