Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Davenham: Why It Occurs
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and your ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. In Davenham, finding it before your engine turns normally means draining and a full flush where it stands. The remainder of this page covers why it happens and how to ensure it doesn't — handy if you're reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Not one liquid but two: that is how plenty of newer diesels around Davenham and Moulton run, with diesel feeding the motor. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There is a filler for each tank. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled on each forecourt call-out, week in, week out. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less frequently. The mistake lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank occur around Davenham?
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
Haste follows from the warning. The car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a drive off Church Street, or heading home in the car park outside Oddfellows Arms.
The old car's filler is where the hand reaches — yet a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That's a second thing: a strange vehicle.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the tip after it has started. Whether it happens in Kingsmead or the middle of Davenham, it's the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Check these first, at a forecourt around Davenham or a driveway out in Bostock Green. A few seconds, no more.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally isn't. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- Plenty of vehicles give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Look inside your fuel flap: many vehicles carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- Cannot find it next to the diesel inlet? Then check below the bonnet or in the boot — the owner's manual will say which.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Greenbank, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
The day the light goes on, anywhere around Cheshire, follow this routine.
- Stop somewhere level, engine off, with time to spare — not hurried on the side of Hartford Road.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, perhaps, but it does the trick.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Only then, start the car: close the cap, check again, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Skip stage five entirely.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Davenham?
The short order of things, beginning with not starting the motor. Don't switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel won't thin it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the base of the tank, right where fuel is drawn from.
Ask the attendants to help push your car away from the pump if you are at a forecourt — the Shell, the Tesco or somewhere else. Your own driveway in Davenham is the place it stays.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. The next junction is where to come off if you are on the M6, under 5 miles from Davenham. A short hop across Davenham is a smaller job than a run towards Chester, under 25 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
When our technicians turn up in Davenham, what happens?
We come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Davenham CofE Primary School, near Davenham Methodist Church or on your own driveway. Both the work and our price rest on three answers — which liquid, which quantity, and if it has run — so our engineers ask. That quote is given over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
Then that tank is drained and the system purged thoroughly. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and none of it washes away unaided. That is why it counts more. Once the filter has been flushed — or replaced, if needed — fresh diesel goes in, and then your car gets tested. We don't go until it has been started and is running smoothly.
If your engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — so use the wait to look at yours.
About Davenham and where it is
Davenham is a village in Cheshire, situated on the banks of the River Dane at an elevation of around 36 metres. Davenham lies approximately 16 miles south of Chester and is surrounded by nearby places such as Kingsmead, Mere Heath, and Leftwich. Davenham has a population of around 2020 people and predominantly consists of semi-detached housing. Davenham is located in the North West region of England, about 156 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Cheshire, Davenham included
Davenham is a village, and our teams that cover it also work the towns around it, Mere Heath and Leftwich among them, across the CW postcode area. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting CW9 8.
The car does not need to move. Anywhere it sits — beside Players Theatre, on a lay-by en route to Woodland Area, at home — that is where it is drained. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of St Wilfrid's Church, ring and ask rather than guessing.
For Davenham drivers, the short version
First, the cap; then, the tip. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere in Cheshire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same — and so leave the car off then phone 0333 366 0103.