Croston: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Pause here for a moment if your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and ring 0333 366 0103. In Croston, finding it before the engine runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush where it stands. Reading in advance? In that case what follows covers how it happens and how to prevent it happening at all.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Diesel feeds the motor — but plenty of modern diesels driven round Croston and Wymott carry a second liquid too. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it.
Each tank has its own filler. Plenty of motors share a single flap for the two, while some move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Topping up the diesel side at the petrol pump goes on constantly. The AdBlue side is topped up far less regularly, normally from a bottle, and usually by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the error lives.
Croston: how AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs
Carelessness seldom explains it. What does is three things coming up together.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from the vehicle, and letting it run dry means limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Town Road, perhaps outside Lord Nelson on the way home that evening.
Then, the hand goes for the cap it knew on the old car — because a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers where your last one didn't.
A spouted bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, after started, keeps on. Barbers Moor or the middle of Croston: it takes the same few seconds either way.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Ulnes Walton or a forecourt in Croston, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of motors, the AdBlue one.
- Look inside your fuel flap: plenty of motors carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says where it lives if the filler isn't next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside the nearest station, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Lancashire that is.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Westhead Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew it. It sounds daft. It works.
- Both under one flap? So confirm the cap on the diesel filler is still shut ahead of raising the bottle.
- Stop when that tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; until then, pour slowly through the own spout.
- Only then, start your car: close the cap, check again, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Never go on to stage five.
Croston: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Short list, then. Top of that: your engine remains off. Leave the ignition off as well, since on many diesels it alone starts the pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is pulled from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it's the Texaco or the Gulf, ask the attendants to help roll your car clear of the pump. At home around Croston? Then the vehicle remains put.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. The next exit means where to come off when you are on the M6, under 5 miles from Croston. A short hop across Croston is a smaller job than a run towards Preston, under 10 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
Croston: what takes place when we arrive
Outside Trinity and St Michael's VA CofE/Methodist Primary School, near Croston Sports Club or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our technicians come to it. Our technicians ask what went in, roughly how much, and if it has run, because the replies settle this work and the price. On the call itself, you are told the quote — ahead of anything else.
Draining the tank comes next, then a thorough flush of your system. More than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: the crystals build up, certain metals corrode, and none of that clears away unaided, no matter how long it is left. Once the filter has been flushed — or replaced, where needed — clean diesel is added, and finally the car gets tested. After that our engineers fire it up and check it runs properly before leaving.
Using pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where your motor hasn't run need about half an hour once we arrive. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork an insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Wrong-fuel cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — and so use the wait to check yours.
About Croston, briefly
Croston is a village in Lancashire, situated on the banks of the River Yarrow at an elevation of around 11 metres. Croston lies approximately 7.5 miles south west of Preston and is surrounded by nearby places such as Barbers Moor, Newtown, and Bretherton. Croston has a population of around 2254 people and is characterised by predominantly semi-detached housing. Croston is located in the North West region of England, about 185.8 miles from London.
Croston and Lancashire: AdBlue drains across the area
Over PR postcodes, our vans covering Croston — a village — work the surrounding spots too, Bretherton and Newtown included. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting PR26 9.
The car does not need to shift. Wherever it sits — beside St Michael's and All Angels, in a layby en route to Croston Village Green, on a drive — that is where it is emptied. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Croston War Memorial, ring and ask rather than guessing.
For Croston motorists, the short version
First, the cap; then, the tip. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Leave the vehicle switched off then phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, throughout Lancashire.