How It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Callands
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case put this page down a moment, leave your ignition and motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. A drain and a full flush, done right where your car sits in Callands, is normally what it takes when found before the engine runs. Not happened yet? Further down, the page covers the why it happens and the ways to prevent it altogether.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Not one fluid but two: that's what many newer diesels near Callands and Winwick Quay run, with diesel feeding your engine. The exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the gas to fresh it, from a separate tank.
There is a filler for each tank. Many of motors have a single flap for both, whereas others put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is filled at the petrol pump all the time. Rarely filled, AdBlue usually comes from a bottle, tipped by a driver who must stop and think what cap it needs. The mistake lives in that gap.
Callands: how AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Gresford Close before work, or in the car park outside The Maltings on the way home.
The old car's cap is where your hand goes — but a rental car, a new motor or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That is a second thing: a strange vehicle.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the tip after it has started. It's a few seconds, whether out in Gemini or bang in the centre of Callands.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Check these before pouring, at a forecourt around Callands or a drive out in Westbrook. A few seconds, no more.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally is not. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows where it lives if your filler is not next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at Warrington West, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
For the day the warning comes on — anywhere it is in Cheshire — a routine to follow.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Newborough Close.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, perhaps, but it works.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start your car, shut the cap and check a second time that the diesel cap was never opened off.
Discover during the second or third step that the bottle went in the diesel filler? That is where you stop. Leave out step five entirely.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Callands?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your motor. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels as soon as your ignition is switched on — so leave it off. Thinning it with more diesel won't work, because AdBlue settles to the bottom rather than blending — and that is where your fuel is sucked from.
On a forecourt — Asda, BP or another — the staff will normally help roll your car away, if you ask. If you are on your own drive in Callands, leave it where it sits.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your motor has already run. The next junction means the place to leave if you're on the M62, under a mile from Callands. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Callands is smaller work than a run of under 15 miles towards Salford, so tell us.
Our arrival in Callands, and what happens next
Our van comes to the car wherever it stopped — your own driveway, near Ellie's Animal Merry Go Round, or by Callands Primary Academy. Those replies determine the work and the quote, so our engineers ask what was put in, about how much, and if it has run. That quote comes on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
The fuel system is then cleaned thoroughly, after the tank is emptied. More than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: the crystals build up, certain metals corrode, and none of that washes away unaided, however long it is left. After your filter has been flushed — or replaced, if needed — fresh diesel is added, and finally the vehicle is tested. Before leaving, our technicians start it and confirm that it's running smoothly.
If the engine hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Nothing in advance; you settle up that day. At the end, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Callands itself
Callands is a suburban area in Cheshire, situated on the riverside with an elevation of around 14 metres. Callands is located near several nearby places, including Gemini, Dallam, and Old Hall, and is approximately 14 miles from the city of Salford. Callands has a population of around 4324 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Callands is also relatively distant from London, at around 168 miles away.
AdBlue drains around Callands, and Cheshire beyond
Dallam and Old Hall are among the places near Callands, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, throughout WA postcodes. Quote a postcode beginning WA5 9, and our van arrives quickest.
The car does not need to move. Draining takes place on the spot, be it a drive, a street near The Galleons, or a lay-by towards Seed's Plantation. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Antelope.
Callands drivers: the short version
Pour nothing until you've read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Keep it off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, throughout Cheshire.