Cauldwell: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Leave the motor and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Caught before your engine runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Cauldwell. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Diesel feeds your motor — but plenty of current diesels seen around Cauldwell and Harton Nook hold a second liquid as well. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has one filler of its own. Many of cars share a single flap for the two, while others put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled at each forecourt call-out, again and again. Seldom filled, AdBlue usually goes in from a bottle, poured by a driver who has to stop and think what cap to use. Mistakes happen in the gap between the two.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank occur around Cauldwell?
Carelessness rarely causes it. Instead is three things coming up together.
Hurry follows from the warning. The car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a drive off A1018, or on the way home in the car park outside The County.
Then the car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Third, the bottle goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in just as easily, and after the tip starts, no part halts it. It's a few seconds, whether out in Westoe or bang in the heart of Cauldwell.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Whether a Cauldwell forecourt or a driveway over in High Shields, spend a few seconds on these before anything is poured in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually isn't. Read it rather than going by position.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Open the flap and check for a label — plenty of vehicles mark what belongs in which inlet just there.
- The handbook shows which it is when the filler is not next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Brockley Whins, 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 across Tyne and Wear, use this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Sunderland Road, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park and switch off properly.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew it. It sounds silly. It does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where the two share a flap, confirm it's shut before the bottle comes up.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, and check again — making sure your diesel cap remained shut throughout. Only then, start the vehicle.
Spot at stage two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? So stop right there. Leave out stage five entirely.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Cauldwell already?
Don't start the motor: that's where the short order of things starts. Don't switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Diluting it with extra diesel won't work, since AdBlue settles to the bottom rather than blending — and that is where the fuel is pulled from.
Ask the staff to help roll the car clear of the petrol pump if you're on a forecourt — the Gulf, the Esso or somewhere else. At home around Cauldwell? Then your car stays where it is.
Already started? Pull over when it is sensible, then turn off. On the A194(M), under 5 miles from Cauldwell, that means the next junction. Mileage counts — a quick hop across Cauldwell is a smaller job than heading under 10 miles towards Sunderland — so say roughly how far it went.
What occurs when our technicians arrive in Cauldwell
We come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Mortimer Primary School, near The Little Hut In The Park or on your own driveway. Both the work and the quote depend on three answers — what liquid, what amount, and if it has run — so we ask. On the phone call itself, you are told our price — before anything else.
Then that tank is drained and the fuel system rinsed thoroughly. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and neither washes out by itself. Hence it counts more. Filter flushed or, if needed, swapped; fresh diesel in; then a test of the vehicle. Before we leave, our technicians start the car and check that it is running smoothly.
If the engine hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. No money in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. It is worth checking your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Cauldwell itself
Cauldwell is a suburban area in Tyne and Wear, situated near the coast and approximately 5.7 miles from Sunderland. Cauldwell sits at a relatively low elevation of 22 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Cauldwell is located near other suburban areas such as Westoe, Harton, and Horsley Hill, and is part of the larger North East region. Cauldwell has a population of around 6938 residents.
AdBlue drains across Tyne and Wear, Cauldwell included
Over NE postcodes, the teams that cover Cauldwell — a residential suburb — work the surrounding spots too, Horsley Hill and Harton included. Give a postcode that starts NE34 0, and our van arrives fastest.
Your car stays put. The drain takes place right there, whether a driveway, a street near Robert Readhead Park, or a lay-by towards Robert Readhead Park. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of St Peter, ring and ask instead of assuming.
The short version for Cauldwell people
Before you pour, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere in Tyne and Wear, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — and so leave the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103.