Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Charlestown: Why It Occurs
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and your ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, carried out right where the vehicle sits around Charlestown, is normally what it needs when found before the engine runs. The remainder of this page explains why it happens and how to ensure it doesn't — useful if you're reading ahead of time.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Many newer diesels in Park, like those in Charlestown, carry on two liquids; your motor gets only the diesel. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust stream to clean it.
There is a filler for every tank. Plenty of motors have a single flap for the two, whereas others move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Topping up your diesel side at the pump goes on all the time. Far less regularly, the AdBlue side gets topped up — normally from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. The mistake grows in the gap between the two.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Charlestown: how it occurs
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
Haste follows from the warning. The car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a drive off Dewhirst Road, or on the way home in the car park outside New Inn.
Then your car is strange. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, once started, keeps on. Brook Hill or the heart of Charlestown: it is the same few seconds either way.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Check these first, on a forecourt around Charlestown or a driveway out in Baildon Wood Bottom. Seconds, that's all.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Trust the cap, not its position.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many cars say there which fuel goes where.
- Cannot see it next to the diesel inlet? In that case check below the bonnet or inside the boot — the owner's manual says which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Baildon.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in West Yorkshire that is.
- Turn off once parked — level ground, motor off, and never rushed beside Fyfe Lane on the verge.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you have located the filler and read it.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start your car, close the cap and check a second time that your diesel cap never opened off.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Stage five stays out.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Charlestown?
Short order, then. First: the motor stays off. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch it on. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
Ask the staff to help push the car clear of the petrol pump if you are on a forecourt — the UK Petroleum, the Texaco or somewhere else. If you are on your own driveway around Charlestown, leave the vehicle where it is.
Already started? Stop when it is sensible, then turn off. Charlestown lies under 10 miles from the M606; there, take the next exit. Mileage matters — a quick hop across Charlestown makes a smaller job than heading under 5 miles to Bradford — so tell us roughly how far it went.
Our arrival in Charlestown, and what happens next
By Hoyle Court Primary School, near St James Church or on your own driveway: wherever the car has stopped, we come to it. The answers determine the work and the price, so our technicians ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether it's run. Nobody heads out until you've heard the price by phone.
After that: a drain, then a thorough flush of the entire system. Much more than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: the crystals form, some metals corrode, and none of it clears out unaided, however long it sits. A test comes at the end: before that, clean diesel goes in, and the fuel filter is cleaned or replaced as needed. Before we leave, our technicians start the car and confirm that it's running properly.
If your engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Nothing upfront; you settle up that day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. It is worth checking your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Charlestown itself
Charlestown is a suburban area in West Yorkshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of around 80 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Charlestown lies close to the city of Bradford, approximately 3.8 miles away, and is near other local places such as Brook Hill, Low Baildon, and Tarn. Charlestown has a population of around 3726 people and is located about 175.4 miles north of London. Charlestown forms part of the wider Bradford urban area, with the city's amenities and services within easy reach.
Charlestown and West Yorkshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Low Baildon and Tarn are among the places around Charlestown, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, throughout BD postcodes. Quote a postcode that starts BD17 6, and our van gets there quickest.
Shifting the car isn't necessary. Draining happens right there, whether a drive, a street near Cup and Ring Stone, or a lay-by towards Paddy's Garden. Assuming won't help at the back of St Aidan's, close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe; phone and ask.
For Charlestown people, the short version
Read the cap before you pour. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Keep it switched off then call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, throughout West Yorkshire.