AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Cotton Tree: Why It Happens and How to Avoid It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and the ignition off and call 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Cotton Tree. Not happened yet? Below, the rest of the page covers the why it happens and the how to prevent it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Not one liquid but two: that is how many newer diesels near Cotton Tree and Colne run, with diesel for the motor. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Different tanks, separate fillers. Under one flap, side by side: that is the arrangement on many motors. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in your boot instead. Topping up the diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. Far less frequently, the AdBlue side gets filled — normally from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. The mistake grows in the gap between the two.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank occur in Cotton Tree?
Carelessness rarely causes it. What does is three things lining up together.
On a drive off Winewall Road before work, or in the car park outside The Cotton Tree heading home: that is where the rushed top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low the car warns you, and once it is empty, limp mode follows.
Then, the hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old car — since a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers where your last one did not.
A spouted bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, after started, keeps on. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Cotton Tree or out in Winewall.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Whether a Cotton Tree forecourt or a driveway out in Laneshaw Bridge, spend a couple of seconds over these before anything is poured in.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps are often blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally don't.
- Many vehicles fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many motors say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by the diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Ask when you collect a rental or fleet car — from Colne's car park, say — not when the light appears.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
Anywhere in Lancashire the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Holme Street.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" out loud as unscrewing it. It seems silly. It does the trick.
- The diesel cap remains on. When both share a flap, confirm it is closed before lifting the bottle.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Before starting your car, close the cap and check again that the diesel cap was never came off.
Discover during the second or third step that AdBlue went into the diesel tank? That's where you stop. Don't go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Cotton Tree?
The short order of things, beginning with not starting the motor. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch the vehicle on. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is drawn from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it's the Sainsbury's or the EG On the Move, ask the attendants to help roll the car clear of the pump. On your own drive in Cotton Tree? Then your car stays where it is.
When the engine has run by now, pull over safely then switch the vehicle off. Come off the M65 — under 3 miles out of Cotton Tree — at the next junction. A short hop across Cotton Tree is a smaller job than a run towards Bradford, under 25 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
What takes place when our engineers turn up in Cotton Tree
Our technicians come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Colne Christ Church Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School, close to Christ Church or on your own drive. Which liquid got in, the amount, and whether it ran: we ask because those answers set both work and quote. During the phone call itself, you hear the quote — ahead of anything else.
Draining the tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the system. With AdBlue that counts 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. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Next we start the car and check it runs correctly before leaving.
Using pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the engine hasn't run need about half an hour once our technicians are there. The insurer usually wants the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours once this job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — and so use the wait to look at yours.
About Cotton Tree
Cotton Tree is a suburban area in Lancashire, situated on the riverside with nearby settlements including Winewall and Carry Bridge. Cotton Tree has a population of around 1477 people and is characterised by predominantly terraced housing. Cotton Tree sits at an elevation of 157 metres, within the North West region of England, and is located approximately 16.4 miles from Bradford. Cotton Tree is also relatively distant from London, at around 182.9 miles away.
Cotton Tree and Lancashire: AdBlue drains across the area
Cotton Tree is a residential suburb, and the vans that cover it also work the places around it, Carry Bridge and Trawden among them, across the BB postcode area. A postcode starting BB8 7 gets the van to you fastest.
There's no need to move the car. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near Colne Cricket Club, a lay-by on the way to Ball Grove Park, a driveway. Awkward to explain, like the back of golf club? Close to a county line? Asking is better than assuming, and so ring.
The short version for Cotton Tree drivers
First, the cap; then, the pour. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere around Lancashire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — so leave the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103.