Carleton: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Stop here a minute when the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then phone 0333 366 0103. Around Carleton, finding it before the motor runs usually leaves a drain and a thorough flush where it stands. Here before the event? In that case what follows explains how it comes about and what to stop it ever happening.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Plenty of current diesels on the roads around Carleton and Eamont Bridge carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, and there a spray cleans the fumes.
Different tanks, different fillers. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is topped up at the pump all the time. Seldom topped up, AdBlue usually goes in from a bottle, poured by a driver who has to stop and think what filler it needs. That gap is where the slip lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Carleton: how it occurs
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
Haste comes from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a drive off Winters Park, or heading home in the car park at Cross Keys Inn.
The old car's cap is where your hand reaches — but a hire car, a new motor or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That is the second factor: a strange motor.
A spouted bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, after started, carries on. Pategill or the middle of Carleton: it takes the same few seconds in both.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Penrith or a forecourt in Carleton.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally isn't. Read it instead of going by position.
- On plenty of motors, size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Open the filler flap and look for a label — plenty of motors show which goes in each inlet just there.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by your diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Penrith, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
When the light goes on, anywhere in Cumbria, use this routine.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Carleton Road.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap works — once you have located the filler and read the cap.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Stage five is out.
Carleton: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Short list, then. First: your motor stays unstarted. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch the car on. Filling up with diesel will not weaken it: instead, AdBlue drops to the bottom of your tank, right where fuel is taken from.
On a forecourt — Esso, Shell or any other — the attendants will normally help push your car away, if you ask. At home in Carleton? Then your car stays where it is.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. On the M6, under 3 miles from Carleton, that means the next exit. Mileage matters — a short hop across Carleton makes a smaller job than heading under 25 miles towards Carlisle — so say about how far it went.
Carleton: what occurs when our technicians arrive
By Beaconside CofE Primary School, close to The Plague Stone or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, our technicians come to it. The answers decide this work and the price, and so our technicians ask what got in, about how much, and whether it has run. You get that quote on the phone, before anyone heads out.
Next: a drain, then a thorough flush of the whole system. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. Testing is last: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and the fuel filter is cleaned or replaced as needed. The engine is fired up next and tested to make sure it runs properly, all before our technicians head off.
Unstarted cars usually mean a half-hour visit after the moment we arrive. The equipment is fine on a live forecourt, and hushed enough for a driveway late at night. The insurer will ask for an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Carleton, briefly
Carleton is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Cumbria, with a mix of detached housing and a population of around 3283 residents. Carleton sits at an elevation of 151 metres, near the villages of Pategill and Scaws, and is located approximately 17.9 miles from Carlisle. Carleton forms part of the wider residential area around Carlisle, with Brougham also nearby. Carleton is positioned in the north of England, about 243.1 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Cumbria, Carleton included
Being a residential suburb, Carleton shares its vans nearby places — Scaws, Brougham — all the way across CA postcodes and the wider area beyond. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting CA11 8.
Moving the car is not necessary. Wherever it stands — near Army Cadets, on a lay-by heading to Winters Park, on a drive — that is where it gets emptied. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Brougham Castle.
For Carleton motorists, the short version
Pour no AdBlue until you have read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere across Cumbria, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway — so leave it off and phone 0333 366 0103.