Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Clough: Why It Happens
Stop here for a moment if the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. Usually, when your motor has not turned, it's drained and thoroughly flushed where your car is in Clough. Reading before the event? Then the rest explains how it comes about and what to stop it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Many current diesels on the roads around Clough and Moss Hey carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it.
There's a filler for each tank. Some motors put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty more have both together behind one flap. Filling your diesel side at the petrol pump happens constantly. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less regularly. Mistakes happen in the gap between them.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank happens around Clough
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the car drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Mount View Road before work, or in the car park at Blue Bell on the way home.
New-to-you vehicles are second, too. Rentals, new cars and company motors place their fillers in new places, and habit reaches for the cap it used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, after begun, keeps on. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Clough or out in Nook.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A couple of seconds is all these take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a drive in Black Clough or a forecourt in Clough.
- Position can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones are often blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually do not.
- On many cars, size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Check inside your fuel flap: many cars carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by the diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Rochdale.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
For the day the warning comes on — wherever it is around Greater Manchester — a routine to use.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Hampden Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, and check again — making sure your diesel filler stayed closed throughout. Only then, start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Don't go on to stage five.
Clough: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Brief order, then. Top of it: the engine remains off. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch the car on. Diluting it with more diesel fails, since AdBlue settles to the base instead of mixing — and that's where the fuel is sucked from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it's the Shell or the Red Rose Filling Station, ask the attendants to help push your car away from the petrol pump. If you're on your own drive around Clough, leave the vehicle where it is.
Where the motor has run already, pull over somewhere safe and switch the car off. On the M62, under 3 miles from Clough, that means the next exit. About how far did it go? Hopping across Clough is less work than a run of under 10 miles to Manchester, and so say.
When our technicians arrive around Clough, what takes place?
Wherever your car has stopped, be it outside East Crompton St George's CofE School, near Playhouse 2 or at home, the van comes to it. Our engineers ask what got in, about how much, and whether it has run, since those answers decide this work and our price. On the call itself, you are told the price — ahead of anything else.
Then that tank is cleared and the fuel system purged thoroughly. With AdBlue that matters 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 last: before that, clean diesel is added, and your filter is flushed or changed as needed. Then we start the car and check it runs correctly before leaving.
Using pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where your motor has not run take roughly half an hour once our technicians arrive. Your insurer will ask for the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours once this job is done. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. While we travel, have a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Clough, briefly
Clough is a suburban area situated on the outskirts of Manchester, near the lakeside and surrounded by nearby places such as Nook and Top o th Knowl. Clough sits at an elevation of 194 metres, with terraced housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Clough is located approximately 9.4 miles from Manchester and 164.8 miles from London, making it a relatively accessible residential area. Clough remains a small but distinct community within the larger Greater Manchester area.
AdBlue drains across Greater Manchester, Clough included
As a residential suburb, Clough shares its vans surrounding places — Top o th Knowl, Lane Side — all the way across OL postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting OL2 8.
The vehicle remains where it is. Draining happens on the spot, be it a drive, a street by British Legion, or a lay-by towards Shaw Cricket Club. Assuming won't help behind Crompton Library, close to a boundary, or anywhere awkward to pin down; ring and ask.
The short version for Clough motorists
Pour nothing until you have read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere around Greater Manchester, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — and so leave the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103.