Why It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Brotton
Keep the motor and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. A drain and a thorough flush, carried out right where your vehicle stands around Brotton, is normally what it needs when found before your motor runs. Reading in advance? Then what follows explains how it comes about and what to stop it ever happening.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Plenty of modern diesels on the roads about Brotton and Kilton carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust stream and cleans it.
There is a filler on every tank. 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. Filling your diesel side at the pump goes on constantly. The AdBlue side is topped up far less often, normally from a bottle, and normally by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the mistake lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place in Brotton
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out altogether, your vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off High Street before work, or in the car park at The Queens Arms on the way home.
The old car's filler is where the hand goes — yet a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That's the second factor: a strange motor.
A spout-topped bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, once begun, keeps on. Whether it takes place in New Brotton or the middle of Brotton, it is the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
A few seconds is all these take — so check them before you pour anything, on a drive in Kilton Thorpe or a forecourt around Brotton.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Trust the cap, not its position.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- Open the filler flap and look for a label — plenty of vehicles mark what belongs in which inlet right there.
- The handbook shows which it is when your filler is not next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Saltburn? Ask the person who drove it last before leaving, not once the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across North Yorkshire that is.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Saltburn Road.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap works — once you've found the filler and read it.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Before starting your car, close the cap and look again that your diesel cap was never opened off.
Find at the second or third stage that the bottle went in the diesel filler? That's where you stop. Step five stays off limits.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Brotton already?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your motor. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch the vehicle on. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is drawn from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
Ask the staff to help roll the car away from the petrol pump if you are at a forecourt — the Asda, the BP Saltburn or somewhere else. If you're on your own drive around Brotton, leave it where it is.
Where the engine has run already, pull over safely and switch the vehicle off. On the A1(M), under 25 miles from Brotton, that means the next junction. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Brotton is less work than a trip of under 50 miles towards Sunderland, so tell us.
What takes place when our engineers turn up around Brotton
Outside Badger Hill Academy, near Saint Margaret of Antioch or on your own drive: wherever your car has stopped, our technicians come to it. Which liquid was put in, the amount, and if it ran: our engineers ask because those answers decide both work and price. Nobody heads out until you have had the quote over the phone.
Then that tank is cleared and the system cleaned thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. Testing comes last: before that, clean diesel goes in, and the filter is flushed or replaced if necessary. We do not leave until it has been fired up and is running correctly.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour once we get there, as long as your motor hasn't run — and the pumps our engineers use are safe on a live forecourt yet quiet after dark outside a house. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork your insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. While we travel, take a look at your policy; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Brotton, briefly
Brotton is a coastal town in North Yorkshire, situated near the North Sea and approximately 124 metres above sea level. Brotton lies within a short distance of nearby settlements such as New Brotton, North Skelton, and Carlin How, and is characterised by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock. Brotton is located around 29 miles from Sunderland and some 214 miles from London, making it a relatively remote but still accessible town. Brotton has a population of approximately 5399 residents.
Brotton and North Yorkshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Over TS postcodes, our teams covering Brotton — a coastal town — work the surrounding spots too, Carlin How and North Skelton among them. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting TS12 2.
No need to move the vehicle. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Hunley Golf Club, a side street close to Boulby Potash Shaft Grab: we drain the car where it stands. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you're near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of From Beneath.
Brotton people: the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Keep it switched off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, across North Yorkshire.