Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Chilton: Why It Happens
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then set this page aside a moment, keep the ignition and engine off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Around Chilton, catching it before your motor turns normally leaves draining and a thorough flush where it stands. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Diesel goes to the motor — yet plenty of modern diesels driven around Chilton and Windlestone hold a second liquid too. Your exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the fumes to fresh them, from its own tank.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the arrangement on many cars. On others, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. Diesel goes in at every forecourt visit, week in, week out. Seldom filled, AdBlue usually comes out of a bottle, tipped by someone who has to stop and think which cap it needs. The mistake lives in that gap.
Chilton: how AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
On a drive off Eden Terrace before work, or in the car park at The Wheatsheaf heading home: that is where the hurried top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low the car warns you, and once it's gone, limp mode follows.
The old car's filler is where your hand goes — yet a hire car, a new motor or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That is a second thing: a new vehicle.
A spouted bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, after begun, carries on. It's seconds, whether in Great Chilton or bang in the centre of Chilton.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Ferryhill Station or a forecourt around Chilton, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally isn't. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- Plenty of motors fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Look inside the fuel flap: plenty of motors have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- Cannot see it next to your diesel inlet? In that case check below the bonnet or in your boot — the handbook says where.
- Whoever had it before will know. Check as you collect a hire car or fleet car — at Newton Aycliffe's car park, perhaps — not when the warning comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
For the day the light comes on — anywhere you are around Durham — a routine to follow.
- Pull in on level, engine off, with time to spare — not rushing on the side of Dale Street.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you have located the filler and read it.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where the two sit under a flap, make sure it is closed before lifting the bottle.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Spot at stage two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? So stop just there. Don't go on to stage five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Chilton?
Brief order, then. Top of it: the engine remains unstarted. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch it on. Diluting it with extra diesel won't work, because AdBlue sinks to the bottom rather than mixing — and that is where your fuel is drawn from.
Ask the staff to help push the car clear of the petrol pump if you're on a forecourt — the JET, the BP or somewhere else. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive in Chilton.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. The next exit means the place to come off when you are on the A1(M), under 3 miles from Chilton. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Durham, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Chilton.
Our arrival in Chilton, and what occurs next
Our engineers come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Chilton Academy, near St Aidan's Church or on your own driveway. What fluid got in, the amount, and whether it ran: our technicians ask because those answers set the work and price. During the phone call itself, you hear the price — ahead of anything else.
Next: draining, then a thorough flush of the whole system. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. A test comes at the end: before that, clean diesel is added, and the fuel filter is cleaned or changed as needed. Then our engineers fire it up and check it runs properly before leaving.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour after we arrive, provided your motor hasn't run — and the pumps our technicians use are fine on a live forecourt and quiet at night beside a house. The insurer usually wants an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours once the job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. Before we get there, have a look at your policy; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Chilton, briefly
Chilton is a village in County Durham, situated inland at an elevation of 115 metres, approximately 7.9 miles from the city of Durham. Chilton has a population of around 1788 people and is characterised by semi-detached housing. Chilton is located near other small settlements, including Great Chilton and Rushyford, and is connected by Chilton Lane. Chilton is some distance from London, at around 226 miles away.
AdBlue drains in Chilton and across Durham
Rushyford and Chilton Lane are among the towns around Chilton, a rural village, that the same teams cover, over DL postcodes. Give a postcode that starts DL17 0, and the van gets there quickest.
There's no need to move the car. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street close to Chilton Library, a lay-by on the way to Mill Wood, a drive. Tricky to pin down, like the back of Sacred Heart Church Windlestone? Close to a county line? Checking beats guessing, and so ring.
The short version for Chilton drivers
Before you pour, read the cap. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it where it stands, anywhere across Durham: keep the vehicle off and ring 0333 366 0103.