Why It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Burrs
Pause reading a minute when your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. In Burrs, catching it before your motor turns usually means a drain and a thorough flush where it stands. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the page explains the why it takes place and the ways to prevent it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Many newer diesels on the roads around Burrs and Woodhill carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, and there spraying treats the gas.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Many of vehicles have a single flap for the two, whereas some move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Filling your diesel side at the pump goes on all the time. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less commonly. That gap is where the error lives.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank take place in Burrs?
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
Hurry comes from the warning. The vehicle warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a driveway off Holbeach Close, or on the way home in the car park outside The Brown Cow.
Then the car is new. A hire car, a new vehicle 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.
A spout-topped bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, after started, keeps on. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Burrs or out in Higher Woodhill.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A couple of seconds is all these take — so check them before you pour anything, on a drive in Walmersley or a forecourt in Burrs.
- Position can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally do not.
- On many cars, the size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside the fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Check for it.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by the diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at Bromley Cross, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Greater Manchester that is.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Trimingham Drive.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" out loud while unscrewing it. It sounds silly. It does the trick.
- Leave the 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.
- Close the cap, and look once more — confirm your diesel filler stayed closed throughout. Only then, start the vehicle.
Discover during the second or third step that the bottle went into the wrong filler? That is where you stop. Don't carry on to step five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Burrs?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with no starting your motor. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels the moment the ignition is switched on — and so keep it off. Diluting it with extra diesel won't work, since AdBlue sinks to the base instead of blending — and that is where your fuel is drawn from.
The staff at EG On the Move, Tesco or any forecourt will normally lend a hand pushing the vehicle clear if asked. If you're on your own drive around Burrs, leave the vehicle where it sits.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Burrs lies under 3 miles from the M66; there, take the next exit. Mileage matters — a quick hop across Burrs is a smaller job than heading under 10 miles towards Salford — so tell us about how far it went.
Burrs: what happens when our engineers arrive
Anywhere the car has stopped, be it by Our Lady of Lourdes Roman Catholic Primary School, Bury, beside Picnic Area or on your own drive, the van travels to it. We ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it has run, since those replies decide this work and the quote. You get that quote on the phone, before anyone sets off.
Your system is then cleaned thoroughly, after your tank is drained. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and none of it clears out unaided. That is why it counts more. After the fuel filter has been cleaned — or replaced, where needed — fresh diesel is added, and finally the car gets tested. Before we go, our technicians start the engine and check that it's running correctly.
With pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the motor has not run need about half an hour after our technicians are there. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork an insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. It is worth checking your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Burrs itself
Burrs is a suburban area in Greater Manchester, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 91 metres. Burrs is located near several other local places, including Higher Woodhill, Limefield, and Seedfield, and is approximately 8.9 miles from the city of Salford. Burrs has a population of around 3544 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Burrs is also relatively distant from London, at a distance of 171.7 miles.
AdBlue drains across Greater Manchester, Burrs included
Being a residential suburb, Burrs has the same vans as nearby places — Limefield, Seedfield — all the way across BL postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. Fastest of all: quote a BL8 1 postcode to our van.
Moving the vehicle is not needed. Draining happens right there, be it a driveway, a street by Stone Cycle, or a layby towards Burrs Country Park. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Brandlesholme Community Centre? Close to a county line? Asking is better than guessing, and so ring.
Burrs drivers: the short version
Read the cap before you pour. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave the vehicle off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere around Greater Manchester.