How It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Burniston
Leave the engine and ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. A drain and a full flush, carried out just where your vehicle sits around Burniston, is usually all it takes when found before the engine runs. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Diesel feeds your motor — yet many current diesels driven around Burniston and Cloughton Newlands carry a second fluid too. 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. Other cars keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot more place both side by side under one flap. Diesel gets filled at each filling station visit, week in, week out. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less regularly. The mistake grows in the gap between the two.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Burniston: how it occurs
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the car, and running dry leads to limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Coastal Road, or at Three Jolly Sailors on the way home after work.
Then the car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the 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 Burniston or out in Cloughton.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Be it a Burniston forecourt or a driveway out in Scalby Mills, spend a few seconds on these before anything is poured in.
- Read the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue caps are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually are not.
- Many cars fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Open the filler flap and check for a label — many cars mark what belongs in which filler just there.
- Cannot see it next to the diesel filler? In that case look below the bonnet or inside the boot — the owner's manual says where.
- Whoever had it before knows. Check as you pick up a rental or fleet car — from Scarborough's car park, say — rather than once the light appears.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around North Yorkshire that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of High Street, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park then switch off first.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It seems silly. It does the trick.
- The two behind a single flap? So confirm the lid on your diesel side is still shut before lifting the bottle.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the car, close the cap and look again that your diesel cap was never came off.
Stop there if you find, at stage 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 Burniston?
Brief list, then. Top of that: the motor remains unstarted. The fuel pump starts on many diesels the moment your ignition goes on — so leave it off. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is pulled from.
At a forecourt — Rix, Gulf or another — the staff will normally help push your car clear, if you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway around Burniston.
Where the engine has been run already, stop safely and switch it off. Come off the Petuaria Way — under 50 miles out of Burniston — at the first exit. Mileage matters — a short hop across Burniston makes a smaller job than driving under 50 miles towards York — so tell us about how far it went.
Burniston: what occurs when our technicians get there
Our technicians come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Lindhead School, close to Burniston Methodist Church or on your own driveway. Which liquid got in, the amount, and if it ran: we ask since the answers set both work and price. During the call itself, you are told the price — before anything else.
Then the tank is cleared and your system flushed thoroughly. 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 doesn't wash out on its own. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. We don't go until it has been fired up and is running properly.
Unrun vehicles mostly mean a half-hour visit after arrival. The equipment is fine on a live filling station, and quiet enough for a driveway late at night. No money upfront; you settle up on the day. At the end, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. While we travel, have a look at your policy; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Burniston itself
Burniston is a small coastal village in North Yorkshire, situated near the towns of Cloughton and Scalby. Burniston sits at an elevation of 48 metres, with views out to sea and a predominantly detached housing stock. Burniston is located approximately 35 miles from the city of York, and is a quiet residential community with a population of around 920 people. Burniston benefits from its proximity to the scenic Yorkshire coast, with nearby Lind Head offering opportunities for walking and outdoor activities.
AdBlue drains round Burniston, and North Yorkshire beyond
Lind Head and Scalby are among the places near Burniston, a coastal village, that the same teams cover, throughout YO postcodes. Fastest of all: give a YO13 0 postcode for the van.
Moving the vehicle is not needed. Draining takes place right there, whether a driveway, a street near Burniston & Cloughton Village Hall, or a lay-by on the way to King George V Jubilee Playing Field. Tricky to pin down, like the back of St Mary? By a border? Asking is better than assuming, and so phone.
Burniston motorists: the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it sits, anywhere in North Yorkshire.