How It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Coppice
Keep your motor and ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Caught before the motor runs, it is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Coppice. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it does not.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
No single liquid but two: that's how plenty of newer diesels near Coppice and Bank Top carry, with diesel for your motor. Its own tank holds it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, where spraying treats the fumes.
There's a filler on every tank. Under one flap, side by side: that is the layout on a lot of cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. Diesel goes in on each forecourt call-out, again and again. Far less often, the AdBlue side is filled — mostly from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. Mistakes happen in that gap between the two.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs around Coppice
Carelessness seldom causes it. What does is three things lining up at once.
On a driveway off Gainsborough Avenue before work, or in the car park outside Falconers Arms heading home: that's where the hurried top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low the car warns you, and if it is empty, limp mode follows.
The old car's filler is where the hand goes — yet a rental car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That's the second thing: a new motor.
Nothing stops the pour once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It takes seconds, be it out in Primrose Bank or bang in the heart of Coppice.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Whether a Coppice forecourt or a driveway over in Hathershaw, take a few seconds on these before anything is poured in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally isn't. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- The size. On plenty of motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on many vehicles. Check for it.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by your diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at Moston, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
On the day the warning appears — anywhere you are in Greater Manchester — a simple routine to use.
- Pull in on level, engine off, with time to spare — not hurried on the side of Chamber Road.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap works — after you've found your filler and read the cap.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where both sit under a flap, make sure it's closed before lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, then check once more — making sure the diesel filler stayed shut the whole time. After that, start your car.
Spot at stage two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? So stop just there. Don't carry on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Coppice already?
Brief list, then. First: the motor stays off. Don't switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Topping up with diesel won't dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the base of that tank, right where the fuel is taken from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it's the Shell or the BP, ask the staff to help push your car away from the pump. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive in Coppice.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the engine has already run. On the A62, under 3 miles from Coppice, that means the next junction. Distance counts — a short hop across Coppice makes a smaller job than driving under 10 miles towards Manchester — so say roughly how far it went.
Our arrival in Coppice, and what takes place next
We come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Werneth Primary School, close to Masjid-Ul-Asqa and Islamic Centre or on your own driveway. The answers determine the work and our quote, and so our engineers ask what went in, about how much, and whether it has run. You hear that quote on the phone, before anyone sets off.
The fuel system is then rinsed thoroughly, once that tank is emptied. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. A test comes last: before that, clean diesel goes in, and your filter is flushed or replaced if necessary. Before leaving, we start the engine and make sure that it is running properly.
Unstarted vehicles mostly mean a half-hour visit after the moment we arrive. The equipment is fine on a live forecourt, and quiet enough for a residential street late at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It is worth checking your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Coppice itself
Coppice is a suburban area in Greater Manchester, situated approximately 6 miles from Manchester city centre. Coppice sits at an elevation of 197 metres, amidst the rolling hills and residential neighbourhoods of the region. Coppice is characterized by its predominantly terraced housing stock, reflecting the area's historical development patterns. Coppice is close to nearby places such as Primrose Bank, Werneth, and Hollins, forming part of the larger urban landscape.
AdBlue drains round Coppice, and Greater Manchester beyond
Being a residential suburb, Coppice has the same vans as surrounding places — Werneth, Hollins — right through OL postcodes and the surrounding area around them. Quickest of all: give a OL8 1 postcode for our van.
The vehicle remains put. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Coppice Community Centre Garden, a side street near Golden Craftery: our engineers drain the vehicle where it sits. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Shahjalal Mosque & Islamic Centre.
For Coppice motorists, the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Leave the car off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, across Greater Manchester.