How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Crowhole
Leave the engine and ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. In Crowhole, finding it before your motor turns normally leaves a drain and a thorough flush where it stands. The remainder of this page covers why it takes place and how to ensure it does not — useful if you are reading before it has happened.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
No single fluid but two: that is how many modern diesels around Crowhole and Newgate run, with diesel for the motor. Its own tank holds it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, where spraying treats the fumes.
There's a filler on every tank. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. Topping up your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less often. That gap is where the mistake lives.
Crowhole: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
It is hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Hurry follows from the warning. The car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a drive off Bradley Lane, or on the way home in the car park outside The Tickled Trout.
Next, the hand goes for the cap it knew on the old vehicle — because a rental car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
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 pour once it has started. Common Side or the heart of Crowhole: it takes the same few seconds in both.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Barlow or a forecourt around Crowhole, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Trust the cap, not its position.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Lift the filler flap and look for a label — plenty of motors mark which belongs in each filler right there.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler sits if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park at Dronfield? Check with the person who drove the car last before you set off, rather than when the light goes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
Wherever around Derbyshire the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Valley Road.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you have located your filler and read it.
- Both under one flap? Then make sure the cap on your diesel side stays closed ahead of raising the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start your car: close the cap, check again, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Never carry on to step five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Crowhole already?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your motor. Do not switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is pulled from.
The attendants at JET, Sainsbury's or another forecourt will normally lend a hand to push the car away if asked. Your own driveway around Crowhole is the place it should stay.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the motor has already run. Crowhole sits under 10 miles from the M1; there, use the first junction. A short hop across Crowhole is a smaller job than a run towards Sheffield, under 10 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
When our engineers turn up in Crowhole, what takes place?
Our van comes to your car anywhere it stopped — your own drive, beside Barlow & Cutthorpe Methodist Church, or by Barlow CofE Primary School. What liquid was put in, the amount, and whether it ran: our engineers ask because those answers set both work and price. No one heads out before you have heard the quote by phone.
Next: draining, then a full flush of the entire system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. Once your filter is flushed — or replaced, if needed — clean diesel is added, and finally the car gets tested. Before we leave, we start it and confirm that it's running smoothly.
If your engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. While we travel, have a look at your policy; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Crowhole itself
Crowhole is a small hamlet situated on the riverside in Derbyshire, with a mix of detached housing and a population of around 646 residents. Crowhole sits at an elevation of 115 metres, close to nearby places such as Common Side and Peakley Hill. Crowhole is located near the city of Sheffield, approximately 7.4 miles away, and is part of the wider East Midlands region. Crowhole enjoys a relatively quiet location, despite being within commuting distance of major cities.
AdBlue drains across Derbyshire, Crowhole included
Throughout S postcodes, the vans covering Crowhole — a rural hamlet — work the surrounding spots too, Brindwoodgate and Peakley Hill included. Quickest of all: give a S18 7 postcode to our van.
Moving the car is not necessary. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Lees Plantation, a side street close to Barlow Village Hall: our engineers drain the car where it stands. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of St Lawrence, ring and ask instead of assuming.
The short version for Crowhole people
Read the cap before you pour. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it wherever it is, wherever around Derbyshire: switch the car off then ring 0333 366 0103.