AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Catterick: Why It Occurs and How to Stop It
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case set this page down a moment, keep your ignition and motor off, then phone 0333 366 0103. Normally, when the motor hasn't run, it is emptied and thoroughly rinsed where the car sits around Catterick. The remainder of this page explains why it occurs and how to ensure it does not — handy if you are reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of modern diesels in Catterick Bridge, like those in Catterick, carry on two fluids; your engine gets just your diesel. The exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the fumes to fresh them, from its own tank.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. Topping up your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on constantly. Far less frequently, the AdBlue side gets filled — mostly from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. The mistake lives in that gap.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Catterick: how it happens
It is rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, your vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Beckside before work, or in the car park outside The Angel on the way home.
Unfamiliar vehicles are next, as well. Hire cars, new motors and company motors place their fillers differently, and habit goes for the cap it used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, once begun, carries on. Whether it occurs in Bolton-on-Swale or the middle of Catterick, it is the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A few seconds is all these take — so check them before you tip anything, on a drive in Brough with St Giles or a forecourt in Catterick.
- Check the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually are not.
- On many vehicles, the size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many motors say there which fuel goes where.
- Can't see it next to your diesel inlet? In that case look beneath the bonnet or in your boot — the handbook will say which.
- The previous driver knows. Check as you collect a rental or fleet car — at Northallerton's car park, perhaps — rather than when the warning appears.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
The day the light comes on, anywhere around North Yorkshire, follow this routine.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of The Bank.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, yes, but it works.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where both share a flap, make sure it's shut before the bottle comes up.
- Stop when that tank fills or the bottle is empty; until then, tip slowly using its built-in spout.
- Close the cap, then look again — making sure your diesel filler remained shut the whole time. After that, start the car.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Step five stays out.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Catterick?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the motor. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels the moment your ignition is switched on — and so keep it off. Filling up with diesel will not thin it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the base of your tank, right where fuel is drawn from.
Ask the staff to help roll the vehicle away from the petrol pump if you are on a forecourt — the the nearest petrol station, the JET or somewhere else. Your own driveway around Catterick is where it should stay.
Already run? Pull over when it's sensible, then turn off. Come off the A1(M) — under a mile out of Catterick — at the next junction. A short hop across Catterick is a smaller job than a run towards Ripon, under 25 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
Our arrival around Catterick, and what happens next
Outside Michael Syddall Church of England Aided Primary School, near St Annes or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, we come to it. Both the work and our price rest on three replies — which liquid, what quantity, and if it's run — so we ask. No one heads out before you have had our price over the phone.
Then that tank is drained and the system cleaned thoroughly. More than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: crystals form, some metals are attacked, and nothing washes out on its own, no matter how long it sits. After the fuel filter has been flushed — or replaced, where required — clean diesel goes in, and then the car is tested. The motor is started next and tested to be sure it runs properly, all before our engineers head off.
Using pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where your motor has not run take about half an hour once our technicians arrive. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork your insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Before we get there, take a look at your policy; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Catterick and where it is
Catterick is a village in North Yorkshire, situated on the banks of the River Swale at an elevation of 56 metres. Catterick lies near the villages of Bolton-on-Swale, Ellerton-on-Swale, and East Appleton, and is approximately 17 miles from the city of Ripon. Catterick has a population of around 1757 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Catterick is located 207.9 miles north of London, in a scenic riverside setting.
AdBlue drains across North Yorkshire, Catterick included
Ellerton-on-Swale and East Appleton are among the places around Catterick, a village, that the same vans cover, over DL postcodes. A postcode starting DL10 7 gets the van to you fastest.
The car doesn't need to shift. A drive, a lay-by on the way to YWT Bolton-on-Swale Lake, a side street close to Catterick Racecourse: we drain the car where it stands. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you are near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Cataractonium.
In short, for Catterick motorists
Tip nothing till you've read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave the car off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it sits, anywhere across North Yorkshire.