Darkley: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Keep the motor and ignition off and call 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. In Darkley, finding it before the engine runs usually means draining and a full flush where it stands. The rest of this page explains why it happens and how to ensure it does not — handy if you're reading ahead of time.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
No single fluid but two: that is how many newer diesels near Darkley and Madden run, with diesel feeding your engine. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust gas and cleans it.
There's a filler for every tank. Some cars put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others have the two together under one flap. The diesel side is topped up at the pump all the time. Much less commonly, the AdBlue side gets filled — mostly from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. The mistake grows in that gap between the two.
Darkley: how AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
On a drive off Heugh Road before work, or in the car park outside the pub in the village on the way home: that is where the hurried top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low the car tells you, and if it is empty, limp mode follows.
The old car's filler is where the hand goes — yet a hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That is the second thing: a strange motor.
Nothing halts the pour after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Keady or the heart of Darkley: it is the same few seconds in both.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Look at these first, on a forecourt around Darkley or a driveway out in Ballymacnab. Seconds, no more.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Trust the cap, not its position.
- Many cars give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on many cars. Look for it.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler sits if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside the nearest station, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
Wherever in County Armagh the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Stop on level, motor off, with time in hand — never hurried on the side of South Crescent.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft. It does the trick.
- The diesel cap remains on. When both share a flap, make sure it's closed before the bottle comes up.
- Finish when your tank fills or the bottle is empty; until then, tip gently through the own spout.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Never carry on to step five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Darkley?
Don't start your motor: that is how the short order of things starts. Don't switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Diluting it with extra diesel won't work, since AdBlue settles to the bottom rather than mixing — and that is where the fuel is drawn from.
Ask the staff to help roll the car clear of the petrol pump if you are on a forecourt — the the nearest petrol station, the another forecourt nearby or somewhere else. If you are on your own driveway around Darkley, leave it where it stands.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the engine has already run. Darkley sits over 50 miles from the M77; on it, take the first junction. Mileage counts — a quick hop across Darkley is a smaller job than driving under 10 miles towards Armagh — so tell us about how far it went.
Our arrival around Darkley, and what takes place next
Our technicians come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside the local primary school, close to the centre or on your own driveway. The answers decide this work and our price, and so our technicians ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it's run. During the phone call itself, you hear our quote — ahead of dispatch.
Your system is then flushed thoroughly, after your tank is drained. With AdBlue that matters 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. Filter flushed or, if it must be, replaced; clean diesel in; then a test of your car. The motor is fired up next and tested to make sure it runs smoothly, all before our technicians head off.
With pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your engine hasn't run need roughly half an hour after our technicians are there. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents an insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Darkley, for a moment
Darkley is a rural locality in County Armagh, situated inland at an elevation of 199 metres, approximately 8.9 miles from Armagh city. Darkley is characterised by its detached housing and is located near the settlements of Keady, Derrynoose, and Newtownhamilton. Darkley has a population of around 874 residents and is part of the wider Northern Ireland region.
AdBlue drains in Darkley and across County Armagh
Being a small village, Darkley has the same vans as surrounding areas — Derrynoose, Newtownhamilton — all the way across BT postcodes and the wider area beyond. A postcode starting BT60 3 gets our van to you fastest.
Shifting your car isn't necessary. Anywhere it stands — beside a street just off the centre, on a layby heading to the green space at the edge of the village, on a drive — that is where it gets cleared. Awkward to explain, like the back of the far end of the built-up part? By a county line? Asking is better than assuming, so phone.
Darkley drivers: the short version
Tip no AdBlue until you've read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Keep the car off then ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, across County Armagh.