Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Dalton
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and the ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, done just where your car sits in Dalton, is normally what it needs if caught before your engine runs. The rest of this page explains why it takes place and how to ensure it does not — useful if you are reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Many newer diesels on the roads round Dalton and Tandem carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There is a filler on every tank. Some motors put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot more have both together under one flap. Topping up the diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less regularly. Mistakes happen in the gap between them.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Dalton: how it happens
It is rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a driveway off Briggate before work, or in the car park outside Black Horse on the way home: that is where the rushed top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low your car warns you, and if it is empty, limp mode follows.
Unfamiliar cars are second, too. Rentals, new cars and company motors place their fillers differently, and the hand reaches 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, so nothing stops the pour after it has started. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Dalton or out in Rawthorpe.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Grove Place or a forecourt in Dalton, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Position misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually do not.
- The size. On plenty of motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on many motors. Look for it.
- The handbook says which it is if your filler isn't next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Deighton? Ask whoever drove the vehicle last before leaving, not once the light goes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
Wherever around West Yorkshire the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Crossley Lane.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- Both under one flap? Then make sure the lid on your diesel side is still shut before lifting the bottle.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, then look once more — making sure the diesel filler stayed shut the whole time. After that, start your car.
Find at step two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? Then stop right there. Don't carry on to step five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Dalton already?
Short order, then. First: your motor stays off. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels as soon as your ignition is switched on — so keep it off. Thinning it with extra diesel fails, because AdBlue sinks to the bottom instead of mixing — and that's where the fuel is pulled from.
At a forecourt — Morrisons, Tesco or another — the staff will usually help roll the car clear, if you ask. If you're on your own drive in Dalton, leave the vehicle where it is.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Dalton lies under 3 miles from the M62; there, use the next junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Bradford, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Dalton.
Our arrival in Dalton, and what takes place next
Our engineers come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Dalton School, near Greenfields Family Centre or on your own drive. Both the work and our quote rest on three replies — which liquid, which quantity, and if it has run — so our technicians ask. On the phone call itself, you hear the price — before dispatch.
Then your tank is cleared and your system purged thoroughly. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. The engine is started next and tested to make sure it runs properly, all before our engineers leave.
Unstarted cars usually need a half-hour job from arrival. The kit is safe on a live forecourt, and hushed enough for a residential street late at night. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents your insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Wrong-fuel cover is part of many insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Dalton itself
Dalton is a suburban area in West Yorkshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 61 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Dalton lies approximately 9.5 miles from Bradford and is close to nearby places such as Rawthorpe, Waterloo, and Greenside. Dalton has a population of around 3326 residents and is located near the regional city of Bradford. Dalton is part of the wider urban area surrounding Bradford, with easy access to the city's amenities.
AdBlue drains round Dalton, and West Yorkshire beyond
Dalton is a residential suburb, and the teams that cover it also work the towns around it, Waterloo and Greenside among them, across the HD postcode area. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting HD5 9.
The vehicle stays put. Wherever it sits — beside St James' Church & Parish Centre, on a layby heading to Dalton Bank LNR, at home — that's where it is drained. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of St John, Kirkheaton Church, ring and ask rather than guessing.
For Dalton drivers, the short version
Tip nothing till you've read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave the car off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it waits, anywhere in West Yorkshire.