Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Cowhill: Why It Occurs
Stop here for a moment if the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Cowhill. The remainder of this page explains why it takes place and how to ensure it does not — handy if you are reading before it has happened.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Plenty of modern diesels around Westwood, like those in Cowhill, carry on two liquids; your engine takes just the diesel. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust stream and cleans it.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the layout on a lot of motors. On others, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in your boot instead. Diesel gets filled on every filling station call-out, week in, week out. Far less frequently, the AdBlue side is filled — mostly from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place in Cowhill
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
On a driveway off Gorton Street before work, or in the car park outside The Crown on the way home: that's where the rushed top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low your car warns you, and if it is empty, limp mode follows.
The old car's cap is where the hand reaches — but a hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That is the second thing: a strange motor.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the tip once it has started. Whether it happens in Alder Root or the middle of Cowhill, it is the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Werneth or a forecourt around Cowhill, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Check the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually are not.
- Plenty of cars fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Open the flap and look for a label — plenty of vehicles show which belongs in which inlet right there.
- The handbook shows which it lives when the filler isn't next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Mills Hill, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
Wherever in Greater Manchester the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Pull in on level, engine off, with time in hand — never rushing on the side of Denton Lane.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" aloud while unscrewing it. It sounds daft. It works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the vehicle on.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, then look once more — confirm your diesel filler remained closed throughout. After that, start the car.
Find at step two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? Then stop right there. Leave out stage five entirely.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Cowhill?
Brief order, then. First: the motor stays off. Leave the ignition off as well, because on many diesels switching it on by itself starts your fuel pump. Filling up with diesel will not dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the base of the tank, right where fuel is taken from.
Ask the staff to help push the car clear of the petrol pump if you are on a forecourt — the Asda, the BP or somewhere else. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive in Cowhill.
When the engine has been run by now, stop somewhere safe and turn the vehicle off. The next exit is the place to come off when you are on the Broadway, under 3 miles from Cowhill. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Manchester, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Cowhill.
When our technicians arrive around Cowhill, what takes place?
Anywhere the car has stopped, whether by Christ Church CofE Primary School, beside The Crossley Centre or on your own drive, our van travels to it. Both the work and the price rest on three answers — which liquid, which amount, and whether it has run — so our technicians ask. During the call itself, you hear our price — ahead of anything else.
Then that tank is emptied and your system purged thoroughly. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and none of it clears out unaided. Hence it counts more. A test comes at the end: before that, fresh diesel is added, and your filter is cleaned or changed if necessary. We do not leave until it has been started and is running smoothly.
Unstarted vehicles mostly need a half-hour job from the moment we arrive. The equipment is safe on a live filling station, and hushed enough for a driveway late at night. Your insurer usually wants an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours once this job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. Wrong-fuel cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — so use the wait to look at yours.
About Cowhill itself
Cowhill is a suburban area in Greater Manchester, situated near the riverside and approximately 6 miles from Manchester city centre. Cowhill has a mix of housing types, but is predominantly characterised by terraced homes. Cowhill sits at an elevation of around 136 metres, and is close to nearby places such as Alder Root and Chadderton. Cowhill is located in the North West region of England, about 163.9 miles from London.
AdBlue drains round Cowhill, and Greater Manchester beyond
Throughout OL postcodes, the vans that cover Cowhill — a residential suburb — work the nearby places too, Chadderton and Stock Brook among them. Fastest of all: quote a OL9 9 postcode for the van.
There's no need to move the vehicle. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Agnes-Robinson Pocket Park, a side street close to Chadderton War Memorial: our engineers drain the car where it sits. Guessing won't help at the back of Chadderton Town Hall, on a border, or somewhere hard to pin down; phone and check.
In short, for Cowhill motorists
First, the cap; after that, the pour. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Leave it switched off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, across Greater Manchester.