Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Clady: Why It Happens
Leave the engine and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Caught before your motor runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Clady. Here before the event? In that case what follows explains how it happens and what to stop it happening at all.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Diesel feeds your motor — but many current diesels seen around Clady and Tamlaght hold a second liquid too. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, and there a spray cleans the fumes.
There is a filler on each tank. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the arrangement on many cars. On others, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. At the pump, your diesel side gets filled all the time. The AdBlue side is topped up far less frequently, usually from a bottle, and usually by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. Mistakes happen in that gap between them.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Clady: how it takes place
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out completely, your vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Wallace Cottages before work, or in the car park outside the pub in the village on the way home.
Then the vehicle is new. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the 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 no more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, after started, keeps on. It takes a few seconds, whether in Inishrush or bang in the centre of Clady.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Check these first, on a forecourt around Clady or a drive over in Bellaghy. A few seconds, no more.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally is not. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- Cannot see it beside your diesel filler? In that case check beneath the bonnet or inside your boot — the owner's manual says where.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at the nearest station? Check with the person who drove the car last before you set off, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in County Londonderry that is.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Dunaverty Court.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, perhaps, but it works.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Do not go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Clady?
Do not start your motor: that is how the short order of things begins. Don't switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Thinning it with more diesel won't work, since AdBlue settles to the bottom rather than blending — and that's where your fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — the nearest petrol station, another forecourt nearby or another — the attendants will usually help push the car away, when you ask. Your own drive in Clady is the place it should stay.
Already started? Pull over once it's sensible, then switch off. Leave the M77 — over 50 miles out of Clady — at the next exit. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Belfast, under 50 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Clady.
Our arrival in Clady, and what takes place next
Anywhere the car has stopped, be it outside the local primary school, beside the centre or at home, our van travels to it. Both the work and the price depend on three replies — which liquid, which quantity, and if it has run — so we ask. That quote comes over the phone, before any van leaves.
Emptying that tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that matters more here than with petrol. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Then our technicians start it and confirm it runs correctly before we go.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour once our technicians get there, provided your motor hasn't run — and the pumps we use are safe on a busy forecourt yet quiet after dark beside a house. No money upfront; you settle up on the day. At the end, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Clady, briefly
Clady is a small locality in County Londonderry, situated inland at an elevation of 33 metres, approximately 29.8 miles northwest of Belfast. Clady is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock and is surrounded by nearby places such as Inishrush, Glenone, and Portglenone. Clady has a population of around 564 people and is located in a rural area of Northern Ireland, some 351.5 miles northwest of London.
Clady and County Londonderry: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout BT postcodes, our teams that cover Clady — a small village — work the nearby locations too, Portglenone and Glenone included. Give a postcode that starts BT44 8, and the van gets there quickest.
Shifting your car is not needed. The drain takes place right there, be it a driveway, a road near a street just off the centre, or a layby towards the green space at the edge of the village. Tricky to explain, like the back of the far end of the built-up part? Close to a border? Asking is better than guessing, so phone.
In short, for Clady motorists
Before you tip, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere in County Londonderry, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless — and so leave the car off then call 0333 366 0103.