How It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Carr Bank
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case put this page down for now, keep the ignition and motor off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before your motor runs, it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Carr Bank. Here before the event? In that case what follows explains how it happens and what to prevent it ever happening.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Many modern diesels on the roads round Carr Bank and Limefield carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, and there spraying treats the gas.
Each tank has a filler of its own. Some vehicles put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot more have the two side by side behind one flap. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. Much less often, the AdBlue side gets topped up — mostly from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. It is in the gap that the slip happens.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank occur around Carr Bank?
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the vehicle, and letting it run out leads to limp mode — so a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Greenbooth Road, or at Masons Arms on the way home after work.
Unfamiliar cars are second, too. Hire cars, new vehicles and company motors put their fillers in new places, and habit reaches for the cap it used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the tip once it has started. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Carr Bank or out in Baldingstone.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Check these first, at a forecourt around Carr Bank or a driveway over in Nangreaves. Seconds, no more.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- The size. On many cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by the diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the car 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.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
The day the light comes on, wherever across Greater Manchester, use this routine.
- Turn off once parked — flat ground, motor off, and never rushed beside Ribble Drive on the verge.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, yes, yet it works.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Finish once that tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; before that, tip slowly using its own spout.
- Only after that, start your car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Leave out stage five entirely.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Carr Bank already?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the engine. Don't switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
The attendants at Esso, EG On the Move or another forecourt will normally lend a hand to push the car away when you ask. If you are on your own driveway around Carr Bank, leave the vehicle where it sits.
Where your motor has run already, pull over somewhere safe and switch the car off. Carr Bank sits under a mile from the M66; there, use the next junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Salford, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Carr Bank.
Carr Bank: what happens when we turn up
We come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Springside Primary School, near Christ Church or on your own driveway. Our engineers ask what got in, roughly how much, and if it has run, since those answers decide this work and the quote. No one sets off before you've had the quote over the phone.
Then the tank is drained and your system purged thoroughly. More than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: crystals build up, certain metals are attacked, and nothing clears away on its own, however long it is left. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. After that we fire it up and confirm it runs smoothly before we leave.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour after our technicians get there, provided your motor hasn't run — and the pumps we use are safe on a busy forecourt yet quiet after dark beside a house. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents your insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. It is worth checking your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Carr Bank
Carr Bank is a suburban area in Greater Manchester, situated near the River Irwell and close to the cities of Salford and Manchester. Carr Bank sits at an elevation of around 150 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Carr Bank is located near several other small communities, including Baldingstone, Bevis Green, and Walmersley, and is around 9.8 miles from Salford. Carr Bank has a population of approximately 2071 residents.
AdBlue drains round Carr Bank, and Greater Manchester beyond
Carr Bank is a residential suburb, and our vans that cover it also work the places near it, Bevis Green and Walmersley among them, across the BL postcode area. Fastest of all: give a BL9 6 postcode for our van.
Your car remains put. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Walmersley Golf Club, a side street close to Seedfield Methodist Church: our engineers drain the vehicle where it is. Guessing doesn't help at the back of St John with St Mark, on a boundary, or somewhere awkward to pin down; phone and check.
Carr Bank motorists: the short version
Pour nothing till you have read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Leave the car off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, throughout Greater Manchester.