How It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Burscough
Pause reading a minute if your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. Around Burscough, finding it before your motor turns normally means a drain and a thorough flush on the spot. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page covers the reasons it occurs and the how to prevent it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
No single liquid but two: that's what many newer diesels around Burscough and Hoscar carry, with diesel feeding the engine. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the arrangement on many cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in the boot instead. Topping up your diesel side at the petrol pump happens 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. Mistakes happen in that gap between the two.
Burscough: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from your car, and letting it run dry means limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Trevor Road, or outside The Hop Vine on the way home after work.
Then, the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old motor — because a rental car, a new car or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
Lastly, the bottle goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in just as easily, and after the tip begins, nothing halts it. It takes seconds, be it in Burscough Bridge or bang in the centre of Burscough.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Tarlscough or a forecourt around Burscough, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Read the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue ones are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally aren't.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Look for it.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by your diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Burscough Junction? Check with whoever drove the vehicle last before you set off, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
Wherever around Lancashire the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Junction Lane, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park and switch off first.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" aloud while unscrewing it. It sounds silly. It works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the vehicle on.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, then check again — making sure the diesel filler remained closed the whole time. After that, start your car.
Find at stage two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? Then stop right there. Skip stage five entirely.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Burscough?
Short order, then. Top of that: the motor stays off. Keep the ignition off as well, because on plenty of diesels switching it on alone starts your pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is pulled from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
Ask the staff to help push the vehicle away from the pump if you are at a forecourt — the Texaco, the Esso or anywhere else. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway around Burscough.
Already started? Pull over once it's safe, then switch off. On the M58, under 5 miles from Burscough, that means the next exit. A short hop across Burscough is a smaller job than a run towards Preston, under 15 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
When our engineers get there around Burscough, what happens?
The van comes to the vehicle anywhere it has come to rest — your own driveway, beside Burscough Library, or by Burscough Bridge Methodist School. Both the work and the quote depend on three answers — what liquid, which quantity, and whether it has run — so our technicians ask. On the phone call itself, you are told our price — ahead of dispatch.
Next: a drain, then a thorough flush of the whole system. Much more than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: crystals form, some metals are attacked, and nothing washes out on its own, no matter how long it sits. Once your filter has been flushed — or replaced, where required — fresh diesel is added, and finally the vehicle is tested. We don't go until it has been started and is running correctly.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour after we arrive, as long as the motor hasn't run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a busy forecourt yet quiet at night outside a house. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents your insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. It's worth looking at your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Burscough itself
Burscough is a village in Lancashire, situated on the banks of the Leeds-Liverpool Canal, with Burscough Bridge nearby. Burscough has a mix of semi-detached housing and other types, and is located about 12 miles west of Preston. Burscough sits at a relatively low elevation of 24 metres above sea level, in a riverside setting that has influenced its development. Burscough is part of the wider rural landscape of Lancashire, with nearby places including New Lane and Ring o Bells.
Burscough and Lancashire: AdBlue drains across the area
New Lane and Ring o Bells are among the towns around Burscough, a village, that the same teams cover, throughout L postcodes. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting L40 7.
Moving the car isn't necessary. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street close to Burscough Wharf, a lay-by on the way to Richmond Park, a driveway. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Burscough Methodist Church.
In short, for Burscough motorists
Read the cap before you pour. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave the car off then call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it sits, anywhere in Lancashire.