Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Burn Knolls
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and the ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, carried out right where your vehicle sits around Burn Knolls, is normally what it takes if found before the motor runs. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
No single liquid but two: that is what plenty of modern diesels around Burn Knolls and Topcliffe run, with diesel feeding your motor. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Different tanks, different fillers. On a lot of vehicles 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 constantly. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less regularly. The mistake grows in that gap between the two.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Burn Knolls: how it occurs
It is hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a drive off Brambling Mews before work, or in the car park outside Ackroyd Street Working Men's Club heading home: that's where the hurried top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low your car warns you, and if it's gone, limp mode kicks in.
Then the car is strange. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the tip once it has started. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Burn Knolls or out in Well Hill.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Whether a Burn Knolls forecourt or a driveway out in Town End, spend a few seconds on these before anything goes in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually isn't. Read it rather than going by position.
- On many cars, the size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of cars say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by the diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Morley, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in West Yorkshire that is.
- Stop on level, motor off, with time in hand — not rushing on the side of Magpie Lane.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly. It works.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the vehicle on.
- Finish when that tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; before that, tip slowly using the built-in spout.
- Before starting the vehicle, close the cap and check a second time that your diesel cap never opened off.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Step five is out.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Burn Knolls?
Don't start your motor: that's how the short order of things starts. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels the moment your ignition goes on — so leave it off. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is sucked from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it is the Morrisons or the Shell, ask the staff to help roll the car clear of the pump. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive in Burn Knolls.
When your motor has been run by now, pull over safely then switch it off. Burn Knolls lies under a mile from the M62; there, take the next junction. A short hop across Burn Knolls is a smaller job than a run towards Leeds, under 5 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
What takes place when our technicians turn up around Burn Knolls
Anywhere the car has stopped, be it by Seven Hills Primary School, near Salvation Army or on your own drive, the van comes to it. What liquid got in, the amount, and if it ran: our engineers ask since the replies set both work and quote. On the call itself, you hear our price — before dispatch.
Emptying the tank comes next, followed by a full flush of the fuel system. With AdBlue that counts 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. Testing is last: before that, fresh diesel is added, and your filter is cleaned or changed as needed. Then we fire it up and confirm it runs correctly before we go.
If your motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Your insurer will ask for an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both once this job is done. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Burn Knolls, for a moment
Burn Knolls is a suburban area situated on the riverside in West Yorkshire, with a mix of semi-detached housing and local amenities. Burn Knolls sits near the city of Leeds, approximately 4.3 miles from the city centre, and is close to nearby places such as Well Hill and Gillroyd. Burn Knolls has a population of around 7103 people and is located at an elevation of 114 metres. Burn Knolls is part of the wider Leeds urban area, with easy access to the city's facilities and services.
AdBlue drains about Burn Knolls, and West Yorkshire beyond
Gillroyd and Low Town End are among the places near Burn Knolls, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, over LS postcodes. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting LS27 8.
There's no need to move your car. Anywhere it sits — near Ernie Wise, in a layby en route to Bluetin Park, on a drive — that is where it is cleared. Guessing won't help behind Newlands Methodist Church, on a border, or somewhere awkward to pin down; phone and check.
The short version for Burn Knolls people
Tip no AdBlue till you've read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Leave the car off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, across West Yorkshire.