Chowdene: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Pause here a minute if the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Chowdene. Not happened yet? Below, the rest of the page covers the why it occurs and the how to prevent it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Diesel feeds your motor — but plenty of modern diesels driven round Chowdene and Low Fell carry a second liquid as well. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust stream and cleans it.
Each tank comes with one filler of its own. Under one flap, side by side: that's the layout on a lot of motors. On others, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in the boot instead. Diesel gets filled on each forecourt visit, week in, week out. Far less frequently, the AdBlue side is topped up — normally from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. Mistakes happen in the gap between the two.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place in Chowdene
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Saltwell Road South before work, or in the car park outside The Gold Medal on the way home.
New-to-you motors come second, too. Hire cars, new motors and company vehicles put their fillers differently, and the hand goes for the cap used on the old one.
Third, the spout goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in as readily, and after the tip starts, nothing stops it. Allerdene or the heart of Chowdene: it takes the same few seconds either way.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Be it a Chowdene forecourt or a drive over in Lady Park, take a couple of seconds over these before anything goes in.
- Check the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue caps are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually are not.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Look inside your fuel flap: many motors carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- Cannot see it beside your diesel filler? Then check below the bonnet or in the boot — the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before knows. Ask as you pick up a rental or fleet car — at Dunston's car park, say — rather than once the light appears.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
Anywhere across Tyne and Wear the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Chowdene Bank.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- The two behind a single flap? Then confirm the lid on the diesel filler stays shut ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the vehicle, close the cap and look again that your diesel cap was never came off.
Discover at the second or third step that AdBlue went into the wrong filler? That's where you stop. Don't go on to stage five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Chowdene?
Do not start the engine: that's where the short order of things starts. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels the moment the ignition is switched on — so keep it off. Thinning it with extra diesel fails, because AdBlue settles to the base rather than mixing — and that's where the fuel is pulled from.
At a forecourt — Sainsbury's, JET or another — the staff will usually help push the car clear, if you ask. On your own drive around Chowdene? Then your car remains put.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the engine has already run. Chowdene sits under 3 miles from the A1(M); on it, use the first exit. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Chowdene is less work than a trip of under 5 miles towards Newcastle upon Tyne, and so say.
Our arrival around Chowdene, and what happens next
We come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Oakfield Infant School, near Cromer Avenue U.R.C. or on your own drive. What fluid got in, the quantity, and whether it ran: our engineers ask since those replies decide the work and price. You get that quote on the phone, before anybody heads out.
Emptying the tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the fuel system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that counts more here than with petrol. After your filter has been cleaned — or replaced, if needed — fresh diesel goes in, and then the car gets tested. Before we leave, we start it and make sure that it's running smoothly.
Using pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where the motor hasn't run take about half an hour once our technicians arrive. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents your insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Chowdene, for a moment
Chowdene is a suburban area located on the riverside in Tyne and Wear, with a mix of semi-detached housing and local amenities. Chowdene sits near the city of Newcastle upon Tyne, approximately 3.7 miles from the city centre, and is close to nearby places such as Allerdene and Lyndhurst. Chowdene has a population of around 4174 people and is situated at an elevation of 36 metres, making it a relatively low-lying area. Chowdene is part of the wider Newcastle upon Tyne urban area, with easy access to the city's facilities and services.
AdBlue drains in Chowdene and across Tyne and Wear
Lyndhurst and Harlow Green are among the places around Chowdene, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, throughout NE postcodes. A postcode starting NE9 6 gets the van to you fastest.
Moving your car isn't necessary. Draining takes place on the spot, be it a driveway, a road by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or a lay-by on the way to Kells Lane Park. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of St Ninian, ring and ask instead of guessing.
In short, for Chowdene drivers
Read the cap before you tip. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Leave it switched off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, across Tyne and Wear.