Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Childwall: Why It Occurs
Stop reading for a moment if your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then call 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, carried out right where the vehicle sits in Childwall, is usually what it needs if caught before the motor runs. Reading in advance? Then the rest explains why it comes about and how to stop it happening at all.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Diesel feeds the motor — but many modern diesels driven around Childwall and Gateacre carry a second liquid as well. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Other cars keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others have the two together behind one flap. The diesel side is topped up at the petrol pump all the time. Seldom filled, AdBlue usually comes from a bottle, tipped by someone who has to stop and think which cap it needs. It's in the gap that the error happens.
Childwall: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
Haste comes from the warning. Your car warns 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 Well Lane, or on the way home in the car park outside Childwall Abbey.
Then the car is strange. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand reaches for the cap it would have 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 decide it, in the middle of Childwall or out in Court Hey.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
A few seconds is all these take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a drive in Broad Green or a forecourt in Childwall.
- Read the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally aren't.
- Plenty of motors fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many cars say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows where it lives if the filler isn't next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Broad Green? Ask whoever drove the vehicle last before you set off, rather than once the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
Wherever across Merseyside the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Childwall Lane, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park and switch off properly.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where both share a flap, confirm it's shut before the bottle comes up.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, and check once more — confirm the diesel cap remained shut the whole time. Only then, start the car.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Do not go on to stage five.
Childwall: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Don't start your motor: that is where the short order of things starts. Do not switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Thinning it with extra diesel fails, since AdBlue sinks to the base rather than mixing — and that is where your fuel is pulled from.
At a forecourt — the nearest petrol station, Shell or another — the attendants will usually help push the vehicle clear, when you ask. Your own driveway around Childwall is where it should stay.
Where your engine has run already, pull over somewhere safe then switch it off. Come off the M62 — under a mile out of Childwall — at the first junction. About how far did it go? Hopping across Childwall is less a job than a run of under 5 miles towards Liverpool, so say.
Our arrival around Childwall, and what occurs next
We come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Childwall Valley Primary School, near All Saints Childwall or on your own drive. The replies determine this work and the quote, and so our engineers ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it's run. Nobody sets off until you've heard the quote by phone.
Next: a drain, then a thorough flush of the entire system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. We do not leave until it has been started and is running smoothly.
If the engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. The insurer will ask for an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Childwall and where it is
Childwall is a suburban area in Merseyside, located approximately 4 miles south east of Liverpool city centre. Childwall sits at an elevation of around 50 metres, in a gently sloping area of the Liverpool suburbs. Childwall is characterised by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock, with nearby amenities including Court Hey, Bowring Park, and Belle Vale. Childwall is home to a population of around 4805 people, according to recent estimates.
AdBlue drains across Merseyside, Childwall included
Being a residential suburb, Childwall shares its vans nearby areas — Bowring Park, Belle Vale — all the way across L postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting L16 5.
The vehicle remains where it is. Anywhere it stands — near Hope Park Sports, in a lay-by heading to Score Lane Garden, on a drive — that is where it is drained. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of St. Mark's Church, ring and ask rather than guessing.
The short version for Childwall drivers
Before you pour, read the cap. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it where it is, wherever across Merseyside: keep the vehicle off then phone 0333 366 0103.