AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Crewe: How It Happens and How to Avoid It
Leave your engine and ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Caught before your engine runs, it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Crewe. Reading in advance? Then what follows explains why it happens and what to stop it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel goes to your motor — yet many newer diesels seen round Crewe and Wistaston Green hold another liquid as well. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has a filler of its own. Some cars keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty more have the two together under one flap. Filling the diesel side at the pump goes on all the time. Seldom filled, AdBlue normally goes in from a bottle, tipped by a driver who must stop and think what cap to use. Mistakes happen in the gap between the two.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank take place in Crewe?
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
On a driveway off Edleston Road before work, or in the car park outside Duke of Bridgewater on the way home: that's where the hurried top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low the car tells you, and once it is gone, limp mode kicks in.
Then the vehicle is new. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
No part stops the pour once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It's seconds, be it in The Valley or right in the heart of Crewe.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Check these before pouring, at a forecourt around Crewe or a drive over in Maw Green. A few seconds, no more.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally isn't. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- Plenty of motors give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many cars say there which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler sits if it is not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- The previous driver knows. Check as you pick up a rental or company car — from the nearest station's car park, say — rather than when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
The day the light comes on, wherever around Cheshire, follow this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Dunwoody Way, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park and switch off properly.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" aloud while unscrewing it. It sounds silly. It works.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start your car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Spot at step two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? Then stop right there. Step five is out.
Crewe: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Brief order, then. First: your engine remains unstarted. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch the car on. Filling up with diesel won't dilute it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the base of that tank, right where fuel is taken from.
The staff at Tesco, Esso or another forecourt will normally help to push your car away if asked. If you are on your own driveway around Crewe, leave it where it is.
When your engine has run by now, pull over somewhere safe and switch it off. Crewe sits under 5 miles from the M6; on it, take the next exit. A short hop across Crewe is a smaller job than a run towards Stoke-on-Trent, under 15 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
Our arrival in Crewe, and what takes place next
Anywhere the car came to rest, be it by Brierley Primary School, near Shahjalal Mosque or at home, the van travels to it. Those answers settle the work and our quote, and so our engineers ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether it's run. No one sets off until you have had our quote over the phone.
Draining the tank comes next, then a full flush of your system. Much more than with petrol, it matters here: the crystals form, certain metals are attacked, and nothing washes out unaided, however long it sits. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Then our technicians fire it up and confirm it runs properly before we leave.
If your motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Your insurer will ask for an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies — and so use the wait to look at yours.
About Crewe itself
Crewe is a town situated in the county of Cheshire, England, and is notable for its strong connection to the railway industry. Located on the banks of a river, the town has a rich history of engineering and manufacturing. Crewe is positioned near several major cities, including Manchester and Liverpool, making it a significant location in the region. The town is also home to a major car production facility, producing luxury vehicles.
AdBlue drains in Crewe and across Cheshire
Crewe is a riverside town, and the teams that cover it also work the places around it, Sydney and Coppenhall among them, across the CW postcode area. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting CW2 7.
Your car stays where it is. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Valley Park, a side street near Odeon: our technicians drain it where it is. Awkward to pin down, like the back of The Salvation Army Worship Centre? By a county line? Asking beats guessing, so phone.
Crewe drivers: the short version
Tip nothing until you have read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Leave it switched off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, throughout Cheshire.