Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Clifton Dykes: Why It Occurs
Stop here for a moment if your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then phone 0333 366 0103. Around Clifton Dykes, catching it before the engine turns usually means a drain and a thorough flush where it stands. Here before the event? Then the rest explains why it happens and what to stop it happening at all.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Diesel goes to your engine — yet plenty of newer diesels driven round Clifton Dykes and Carleton hold another fluid as well. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, where spraying treats the fumes.
Each tank has its own filler. Some vehicles put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty more have the two side by side under one flap. Filling your diesel side at the pump happens constantly. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less regularly, usually from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake grows in the gap between the two.
Clifton Dykes: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the vehicle, and letting it run out means limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Moor Lane, perhaps outside George and Dragon on the way home after work.
Then your car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spouted bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, after started, carries on. It's a few seconds, whether in Clifton or right in the heart of Clifton Dykes.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Look at these first, on a forecourt around Clifton Dykes or a driveway out in Eamont Bridge. A few seconds, no more.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally isn't. Read it instead of going by position.
- The size. On plenty of vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Lift the flap and look for a label — many vehicles show which goes in each filler right there.
- The handbook says which it is when the filler is not next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Whoever had it before knows. Ask as you pick up a rental or fleet car — from Penrith's car park, perhaps — rather than once the warning comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Cumbria that is.
- Turn off after you park — level ground, motor off, and not rushed beside Haggy Lane at the roadside.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" out loud while unscrewing it. It sounds silly. It does the trick.
- The two behind a single flap? Then confirm the lid on the diesel side is still shut before raising the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check again, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Don't go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Clifton Dykes?
Don't start the motor: that is where the short order of things starts. Leave the ignition off as well, because on plenty of diesels it alone runs the fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is sucked from.
The attendants at Esso, Shell or another forecourt will normally lend a hand pushing the vehicle clear if asked. If you're on your own drive in Clifton Dykes, leave the car where it sits.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Come off the M6 — under a mile out of Clifton Dykes — at the first exit. A short hop across Clifton Dykes is a smaller job than a run towards Carlisle, under 25 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
When our engineers get there in Clifton Dykes, what occurs?
Wherever the vehicle came to rest, whether outside Clifton Primary School, near Clifton Moor Skirmish 1745 or at home, the van travels to it. Both the work and our quote depend on three answers — which fluid, which amount, and whether it has run — so our engineers ask. You hear that price by phone, before anybody sets off.
After that: a drain, then a thorough flush of the entire system. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and none of it clears out unaided. That is why it matters more. Testing is at the end: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and the fuel filter is flushed or replaced as needed. Before leaving, we fire it up and check that it's running correctly.
If your motor has not run, the majority of 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 after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Clifton Dykes
Clifton Dykes is a locality situated on the riverside in Cumbria, with a mix of detached housing and open countryside. Clifton Dykes sits near the villages of Clifton and Brougham, and is located approximately 19.7 miles from Carlisle. Clifton Dykes has a population of around 502 people and is characterised by its rural setting and relatively high elevation of 156 metres. Clifton Dykes is also part of the wider North West region, with London being around 241.4 miles to the south.
AdBlue drains around Clifton Dykes and across Cumbria
Clifton Dykes is a small village, and the vans that cover it also work the places around it, Brougham and Melkinthorpe among them, across the CA postcode area. A postcode starting CA10 2 gets the van to you fastest.
The car does not need to shift. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Milne Holme Plantation, a side street close to St. Cuthbert's, Clifton: our technicians drain the car where it is. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you are near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Clifton Village Hall.
In short, for Clifton Dykes people
First, the cap; after that, the pour. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway, leave the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it stands, anywhere in Cumbria.