Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Darcy Lever: Why It Happens
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and your ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. A drain and a full flush, carried out just where your vehicle stands in Darcy Lever, is usually what it needs when caught before the motor runs. Here in advance? Then what follows covers how it happens and how to prevent it happening at all.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Many modern diesels on the roads round Darcy Lever and Dove Bank carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. The exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the gas to clean them, from its own tank.
There's a filler for each tank. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the layout on a lot of motors. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. Topping up your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. Far less frequently, the AdBlue side is topped up — mostly from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. It is in that gap that the slip happens.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place around Darcy Lever
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the car goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Radcliffe Road before work, or in the car park at The Volunteer on the way home.
The old car's filler is where your hand goes — yet a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That is a second factor: a strange vehicle.
Third, the spout goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in just as easily, and after the tip begins, no part stops it. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Darcy Lever or out in Oaken Bottom.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Springfield or a forecourt in Darcy Lever, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones are often blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually do not.
- The size. On plenty of motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Open the filler flap and look for a label — plenty of cars mark which goes in each filler right there.
- Cannot find it beside the diesel filler? In that case check beneath the bonnet or inside the boot — the handbook will say which.
- The previous driver knows. Ask when you pick up a rental or company car — at Moses Gate's car park, perhaps — not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
Wherever around Greater Manchester the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of French Grove.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, perhaps, yet it does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. When the two sit under a flap, confirm it is closed before the bottle comes up.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Leave out step five entirely.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Darcy Lever already?
Don't start your motor: that's where the short order of things begins. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch the vehicle on. Topping up with diesel won't dilute it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the base of that tank, just where fuel is drawn from.
The staff at Shell, EG On the Move or any forecourt will normally lend a hand to push the car away when asked. Your own driveway around Darcy Lever is the place it should stay.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the engine has already run. Leave the St. Peter's Way — under 3 miles out of Darcy Lever — at the first exit. Mileage matters — a quick hop across Darcy Lever is a smaller job than heading under 10 miles towards Salford — so say about how far it went.
Our arrival around Darcy Lever, and what happens next
Our van comes to the vehicle wherever it stopped — your own drive, near Leverhulme Centre, or outside St Stephen and All Martyrs' CofE School, Lever Bridge. Our technicians ask what got in, roughly how much, and if it's run, because those replies decide the work and the quote. That quote comes over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
After that: a drain, then a full flush of the whole system. Much more than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: crystals build up, some metals corrode, and none of it washes out unaided, no matter how long it sits. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Before we leave, we fire it up and make sure that it's running correctly.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour after our technicians arrive, provided the motor has not run — and the pumps we use are safe on a live forecourt yet quiet after dark beside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It's worth checking your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Darcy Lever, briefly
Darcy Lever is a suburban area in Greater Manchester, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 96 metres, with terraced housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Darcy Lever lies approximately 7.5 miles from Salford and is surrounded by nearby places such as Oaken Bottom, Tonge Fold, and Burnden. Darcy Lever has a population of around 2615 residents and is located about 171.5 miles northwest of London. Darcy Lever forms part of the wider urban area in the North West region of England.
Darcy Lever and Greater Manchester: AdBlue drains across the area
Over BL postcodes, our teams covering Darcy Lever — a residential suburb — work the surrounding places too, Burnden and Tonge Fold included. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting BL3 1.
There's no need to move your car. Draining takes place on the spot, be it a driveway, a road by Leverhulme Athletics Stadium, or a layby towards Leverhulme Park. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you're near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of St Stephen and All Martyrs' Church.
For Darcy Lever motorists, the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Keep it off then call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, throughout Greater Manchester.