Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Culnady: Why It Occurs
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and your ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103. Normally, when your motor has not turned, it's drained and fully rinsed where the vehicle is in Culnady. The rest of this page explains why it happens and how to ensure it doesn't — handy if you are reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of newer diesels in Swatragh, as well as Culnady, run on two liquids; the engine gets just your diesel. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank comes with one filler of its own. 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. At the pump, the diesel side gets filled all the time. Much less commonly, the AdBlue side is filled — mostly from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. It's in the gap that the slip happens.
Culnady: how AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place
Carelessness rarely causes it. Instead is three things coming up together.
On a drive off Wallace Cottages before work, or in the car park outside the pub in the village heading home: that's where the hurried top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it is gone, limp mode follows.
Then your car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand hits for the cap it would have 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 tip once it has started. Upperlands or the heart of Culnady: it takes the same few seconds either way.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Be it a Culnady forecourt or a drive over in Tamlaght, spend a few seconds on these before anything goes in.
- Read the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue ones are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually are not.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many cars, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows where it is when your filler is not next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside the nearest station? Ask whoever drove the car last before leaving, rather than when the light goes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
Wherever around County Londonderry the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Stop somewhere level, motor off, with time to spare — not hurried on the side of B842.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, yes, but it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the vehicle on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the vehicle, shut the cap and look a second time that your diesel cap never came off.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Leave out stage five entirely.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Culnady already?
Don't start the motor: that is how the short order of things begins. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch the car on. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is pulled from — so do not top up with diesel to thin it.
The attendants at the nearest petrol station, another forecourt nearby or any forecourt will usually help to push the car clear when you ask. If you're on your own driveway in Culnady, leave it where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the motor has already run. The next exit means where to leave when you're on the M77, over 50 miles from Culnady. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Culnady is less work than a run of under 50 miles towards Derry, and so say.
When our engineers arrive in Culnady, what occurs?
Anywhere your car has stopped, be it by the local primary school, near the centre or on your own drive, our van travels to it. Both the work and our price depend on three answers — what liquid, which amount, and if it's run — so our engineers ask. During the phone call itself, you hear our price — ahead of dispatch.
Next: a drain, then a thorough flush of the whole system. Much more than with petrol, it matters here: the crystals form, certain metals are attacked, and nothing clears away unaided, no matter how long it sits. A test is at the end: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and the fuel filter is cleaned or replaced as needed. Before leaving, our engineers start the car and check that it is running properly.
Unstarted cars mostly need a half-hour visit after the moment we arrive. The equipment is safe on a busy forecourt, and quiet enough for a residential street after dark. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents your insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. While we travel, have a look at your policy; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Culnady itself
Culnady is a small locality in County Londonderry, situated inland at an elevation of around 50 metres. Culnady lies near the villages of Upperlands and Maghera, and is approximately 28 miles from the city of Derry. Culnady is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its rural setting. Culnady is a relatively small community, with a population of around 658 people.
AdBlue drains around Culnady and across County Londonderry
Over BT postcodes, our teams covering Culnady — a small village — work the surrounding spots too, Maghera and Gulladuff among them. Fastest of all: give a BT46 5 postcode to our van.
No need to shift the vehicle. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street close to a street just off the centre, a lay-by on the way to the green space at the edge of the village, a drive. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of the far end of the built-up part.
The short version for Culnady drivers
Read the cap before you pour. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Leave it off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, across County Londonderry.