Canada: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Leave the engine and ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Around Canada, finding it before the engine turns usually means draining and a full flush where it stands. The rest of this page covers why it occurs and how to ensure it does not — useful if you are reading ahead of time.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Plenty of newer diesels on the roads round Canada and Whitehill carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to 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.
There is a filler on every tank. Some cars keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty more have both side by side under one flap. The diesel side is topped up at the petrol pump all the time. The AdBlue side is topped up far less commonly, usually from a bottle, and usually by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. Mistakes happen in that gap between them.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Canada: how it happens
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out completely, the car goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Villiers Place before work, or in the car park outside Market Tavern on the way home.
The old car's filler is where the hand goes — yet a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That's the second factor: a strange motor.
No part halts the pour after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It takes seconds, whether out in Chester-le-Street or bang in the centre of Canada.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Be it a Canada forecourt or a drive over in Pelton Fell, spend a few seconds over these before anything is poured in.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- On plenty of cars, size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Check for it.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler sits if it is not by the diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Check when you collect a rental or company car — from Chester-Le-Street's car park, say — 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 Durham that is.
- Stop on level, engine off, with time in hand — not hurried on the side of Lucy Street.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you have found your filler and read the cap.
- Both under a single flap? So confirm the lid on your diesel filler is still shut before raising the bottle.
- Stop when that tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; until then, tip gently through the own spout.
- Before starting the vehicle, close the cap and look a second time that your diesel cap was never opened off.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Stage five is off limits.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Canada?
Do not start the motor: that's where the short order of things starts. The fuel pump runs on many diesels the moment the ignition is switched on — and so leave it off. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is pulled from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
Ask the attendants to help roll the vehicle away from the pump if you are on a forecourt — the BP, the Esso or somewhere else. Your own drive around Canada is where it stays.
Where your engine has run already, stop safely then turn the car off. Canada lies under a mile from the A1(M); on it, use the next exit. Mileage matters — a short hop across Canada makes a smaller job than driving under 10 miles towards Durham — so say roughly how far it went.
Our arrival in Canada, and what takes place next
By Cestria Primary School, near Cornerstones or on your own driveway: wherever the car has stopped, our technicians come to it. Which fluid was put in, the amount, and if it ran: our engineers ask since the answers set both work and quote. You hear that quote by phone, before anybody sets off.
Next: a drain, then a thorough flush of the entire system. More than with petrol, it counts here: the crystals form, some metals corrode, and nothing washes out on its own, however long it is left. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. The motor is fired up next and checked to make sure it runs correctly, all before we head off.
With pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your engine hasn't run need roughly half an hour after our technicians are there. No money upfront; you settle up that day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Canada and where it is
Canada is a suburban area situated on the riverside in County Durham, with a relatively low elevation of 12 metres. Canada lies near the city of Durham, approximately 5.6 miles away, and is close to other nearby places such as Chester-le-Street and Bridge End. Canada has a population of around 4973 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing.
AdBlue drains in Canada and across Durham
Canada is a residential suburb, and our teams that cover it also work the places near it, Bridge End and South Pelaw among them, across the DH postcode area. Quote a postcode beginning DH3 3, and our van gets there fastest.
The car doesn't need to move. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Chester-Le-Street Cricket Club, a side street near Chester-le-Street Methodist Church: our engineers drain the vehicle where it stands. Assuming won't help behind Chester-le-Street Spiritualist Centre, on a border, or somewhere awkward to describe; phone and ask.
Canada motorists: the short version
First, the cap; then, the tip. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere across Durham, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless — and so leave the car off and ring 0333 366 0103.