Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Clifton Junction: Why It Happens
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and the ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, carried out right where the car stands around Clifton Junction, is normally all it needs when caught before the motor runs. The remainder of this page covers why it takes place and how to ensure it does not — handy if you're reading before it has happened.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Plenty of newer diesels around Newtown, like those in Clifton Junction, run on two fluids; the motor gets just your diesel. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has a filler of its own. Under one flap, side by side: that is the layout on a lot of motors. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. The diesel side is filled at the petrol pump all the time. Seldom topped up, AdBlue normally goes in from a bottle, poured by a driver who has to stop and think what cap it needs. That gap is where the mistake lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Clifton Junction: how it takes place
It is rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Hurry comes from the warning. Your car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a drive off Northern Avenue, or heading home in the car park outside Windmill Hotel.
Unfamiliar cars are second, as well. Rentals, new vehicles and company vehicles place their fillers in new places, and the hand goes for the cap used on the old one.
Lastly, the spout goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in just as readily, and once the pour begins, no part stops it. Clifton Green or the middle of Clifton Junction: it is the same few seconds in both.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Look at these before pouring, at a forecourt in Clifton Junction or a drive over in Park Lane. Seconds, no more.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually is not. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- The size. On plenty of cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Check inside the fuel flap: plenty of cars have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by the diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park at Clifton? Ask the person who drove it last before leaving, rather than once the light goes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
Anywhere across Greater Manchester the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Lumns Lane, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park and switch off first.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" aloud while unscrewing it. It seems silly. It does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, and look once more — confirm your diesel cap stayed shut throughout. After that, start your car.
Find at the second or third stage that the bottle went into the diesel filler? That's where you stop. Don't go on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Clifton Junction already?
Don't start your engine: that's how the short order of things begins. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels the moment your ignition is switched on — and so keep it off. Thinning it with more diesel won't work, since AdBlue settles to the bottom instead of mixing — and that is where the fuel is sucked from.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it's the Morrisons or the another forecourt nearby, ask the attendants to help roll your car clear of the pump. Your own driveway around Clifton Junction is the place it should stay.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your motor has already run. On the M60, under a mile from Clifton Junction, that means the next junction. Distance counts — a short hop across Clifton Junction is a smaller job than heading under 5 miles towards Salford — so say roughly how far it went.
When our engineers get there in Clifton Junction, what occurs?
Outside St Mark's RC Primary School, close to St Thomas or on your own drive: wherever your car has stopped, we come to it. What fluid went in, the amount, and if it ran: we ask since the answers set the work and price. On the call itself, you are told our quote — ahead of anything else.
Draining the tank comes next, then a full flush of your system. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own. Filter cleaned or, if needed, swapped; fresh diesel in; then a test of your car. After that our technicians fire it up and confirm it runs properly before we leave.
If the engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork an insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. While we travel, have a look at your policy; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Clifton Junction
Clifton Junction is a suburban area in Greater Manchester, situated near the lakeside and approximately 55 metres above sea level. Clifton Junction lies close to the city of Salford, about 3 miles away, and is near other local places such as Clifton Green and Pendlebury. Clifton Junction has a population of around 1904 people and predominantly consists of semi-detached housing.
AdBlue drains around Clifton Junction and across Greater Manchester
Over M postcodes, our teams covering Clifton Junction — a residential suburb — work the nearby places too, Pendlebury and Clifton included. A postcode starting M27 8 gets our van to you fastest.
Moving the vehicle isn't needed. Anywhere it sits — beside Christ Church, in a lay-by heading to Waterdale, on a drive — that's where it is cleared. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Clifton Library.
For Clifton Junction motorists, the short version
First, the cap; after that, the pour. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere around Greater Manchester, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same — and so leave the car off and phone 0333 366 0103.