How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Combs
Stop here for a moment if your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then phone 0333 366 0103. Around Combs, catching it before your motor turns normally leaves draining and a thorough flush where it stands. The rest of this page explains why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't — useful if you are reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
No single liquid but two: that is how many newer diesels near Combs and Savile Town run, with diesel for the engine. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There's a filler for every tank. Some motors keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others have the two side by side behind one flap. Diesel goes in at every filling station call-out, week in, week out. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less often. That gap is where the mistake lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Combs: how it takes place
Carelessness rarely causes it. Instead is three things lining up at once.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, your vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off The Common before work, or in the car park outside The Alma on the way home.
Then your car is new. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Third, the spout goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in as readily, and after the tip begins, nothing halts it. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Combs or out in Thornhill.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Look at these before pouring, at a forecourt around Combs or a drive over in Thornhill Edge. Seconds, no more.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally isn't. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on many vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside the fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Look for it.
- Can't find it next to the diesel inlet? In that case check beneath the bonnet or inside your boot — the owner's manual says where.
- 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 outside Ravensthorpe.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around West Yorkshire that is.
- Pull in on level, motor off, with time in hand — not rushing on the side of Sandiway Bank.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. When the two sit under a flap, confirm it's closed before the bottle comes up.
- Finish once that tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; before that, pour slowly through its built-in spout.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Stage five stays off limits.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Combs?
The short order of things, beginning with no starting the motor. Leave your ignition off as well, because on many diesels it by itself starts the fuel pump. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it is the bp or the Shell, ask the attendants to help push the car away from the petrol pump. If you're on your own drive around Combs, leave it where it stands.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. The next exit is where to come off when you're on the M1, under 3 miles from Combs. About how far did it go? Hopping across Combs is less work than a trip of under 10 miles to Wakefield, so say.
Our arrival around Combs, and what takes place next
The van reaches the car anywhere it stopped — your own drive, beside Masjid Quba, or by Thornhill Junior and Infant School. Our engineers ask what got in, about how much, and if it has run, since the replies determine this work and our quote. On the phone call itself, you are told our price — ahead of anything else.
Then the tank is cleared and the system rinsed thoroughly. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and neither washes away unaided. Hence it counts more. Once your filter is cleaned — or replaced, if needed — fresh diesel goes in, and then the vehicle is tested. We do not go until it has been fired up and is running correctly.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour once our engineers get there, as long as the motor has not run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a busy forecourt yet quiet at night beside a house. Your insurer will ask for the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. Misfuelling cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — and so use the wait to check yours.
About Combs itself
Combs is a suburban area situated on the riverside in West Yorkshire, with a mix of semi-detached housing and local amenities. Combs sits at an elevation of 74 metres, close to the nearby cities of Wakefield and the surrounding towns of Thornhill and Overthorpe. Combs is located near the M1 and M62 motorways, providing easy access to the wider region. Combs remains a popular residential area with a population of approximately 3996 people.
AdBlue drains across West Yorkshire, Combs included
Overthorpe and Thornhill Lees are among the places around Combs, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, over WF postcodes. A postcode starting WF12 0 gets our van to you fastest.
Your car stays where it is. Wherever it sits — near St Michael & All Angels, in a lay-by en route to Thornhill Rectory Park, at home — that is where it is drained. Awkward to explain, like the back of Masjid Bilal? By a border? Asking is better than assuming, and so phone.
In short, for Combs people
Read the cap before you pour. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere across West Yorkshire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same — so leave the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103.