Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Croxdale
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and your ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before your motor runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Croxdale. The rest of this page explains why it takes place and how to make sure it does not — useful if you're reading before it has happened.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Diesel feeds your motor — yet many newer diesels driven round Croxdale and Tudhoe hold a second fluid 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.
Every tank comes with one filler of its own. Under one flap, side by side: that is the layout on many cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in the boot instead. The diesel side is filled at the petrol pump all the time. Rarely topped up, AdBlue usually comes from a bottle, poured by someone who must stop and think what filler it needs. It is in the gap that the slip lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Croxdale: how it happens
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
On a drive off B6288 before work, or in the car park at Croxdale Inn heading home: that is where the rushed top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low your car tells you, and once it's empty, limp mode kicks in.
New-to-you vehicles come next, too. Hire cars, new motors and company vehicles put their fillers in new places, and the hand goes for the cap used on the old one.
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 after it has started. It takes a few seconds, whether out in Sunderland Bridge or bang in the heart of Croxdale.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Tudhoe Grange or a forecourt around Croxdale.
- Position can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue caps are often blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually do not.
- On many vehicles, size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many cars say there which fuel goes where.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler is if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Durham, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Durham that is.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of A167.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly. It works.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, and look again — confirm your diesel cap remained shut throughout. Only then, start your car.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Never carry on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Croxdale?
Don't start your engine: that's how the short order of things starts. Don't switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
At a forecourt — Shell, BP or another — the attendants will normally help push the car away, when you ask. Your own driveway in Croxdale is the place it should stay.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Croxdale sits under 3 miles from the A1(M); there, use the next junction. Mileage counts — a short hop across Croxdale makes a smaller job than heading under 5 miles towards Durham — so tell us about how far it went.
When we get there in Croxdale, what takes place?
Outside Tudhoe Colliery Primary School, near Croxdale Community Centre or on your own drive: wherever your car has stopped, our technicians come to it. What liquid went in, the amount, and whether it ran: our technicians ask since those answers set both work and quote. You get that price by phone, before anybody heads out.
Draining your tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the fuel system. Much more than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: crystals form, some metals are attacked, and nothing washes away unaided, no matter how long it sits. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. The engine is started next and checked to make sure it runs smoothly, all before our technicians head off.
Unrun cars mostly need a half-hour visit from arrival. The kit is fine on a busy filling station, and quiet enough for a residential street after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Croxdale and where it is
Croxdale is a small village in County Durham, situated on the banks of the River Wear at an elevation of 82 metres. Croxdale lies close to the city of Durham, approximately 3.5 miles to the south, and is near other local places such as Sunderland Bridge and Tudhoe Village. Croxdale has a population of around 513 people, predominantly living in terraced housing. Croxdale is located about 230.5 miles north of London, in the North East region of England.
AdBlue drains around Croxdale, and Durham beyond
Croxdale is a village, and our teams that cover it also work the towns around it, Hett and Tudhoe Village among them, across the DH postcode area. A postcode starting DH6 5 gets the van to you fastest.
The vehicle does not need to shift. The drain happens right there, be it a driveway, a road near St. Bartholomews, or a lay-by towards Loggins Wood. Assuming won't help at the back of Butterby Mill, close to a border, or anywhere hard to describe; ring and check.
For Croxdale drivers, the short version
Read the cap before you tip. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Leave the car off then phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, throughout Durham.