Why It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Denton
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and your ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, done right where the vehicle sits in Denton, is usually what it takes if caught before your motor runs. Not happened yet? Below, the rest of the page explains the why it happens and the ways to prevent it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Not one liquid but two: that is what many newer diesels near Denton and Haughton Green run, with diesel feeding the engine. The exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the fumes to clean them, from a separate tank.
There's a filler for every tank. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the layout on a lot of motors. On others, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. Topping up your diesel side at the petrol pump happens all the time. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less regularly. That gap is where the slip lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Denton: how it happens
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the car, and letting it run out leads to limp mode — so a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Ashton Road, or at The George Kirkpatrick on the way home after work.
The old car's cap is where the hand reaches — yet a hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That's a second thing: an unfamiliar car.
A spouted bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, once started, keeps on. Hooley Hill or the heart of Denton: it takes the same few seconds in both.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Look at these before pouring, at a forecourt in Denton or a drive over in Newton Wood. Seconds, no more.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps are often blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually don't.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside the fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on many motors. Look for it.
- Can't find it next to your diesel inlet? Then check beneath the bonnet or inside your boot — the owner's manual will say which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at the nearest station, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
Wherever around Greater Manchester the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Turn off after you park — flat ground, motor off, and not rushed beside Manchester Road on the verge.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" aloud while unscrewing it. It sounds daft. It works.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Only then, start the car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Stage five stays out.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Denton already?
Do not start the motor: that is how the short order of things begins. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch the car on. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
Ask the attendants to help push the car away from the petrol pump if you're on a forecourt — the Morrisons, the Texaco or anywhere else. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive in Denton.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the motor has already run. On the M67, under a mile from Denton, that means the next junction. About how far did it go? Hopping across Denton is less a job than a run of under 10 miles towards Manchester, and so say.
Denton: what takes place when our technicians get there
The van comes to the vehicle anywhere it has come to rest — your own driveway, beside Denton Library, or by St Mary's RC Primary School. Both the work and our price rest on three replies — what fluid, which amount, and whether it's run — so we ask. The quote comes on the call, before any van leaves.
Draining that tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of your system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. A test is last: before that, clean diesel goes in, and the filter is cleaned or replaced if necessary. The engine is started next and tested to confirm it runs correctly, all before we leave.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour once our engineers arrive, as long as the motor has not run — and the pumps we use are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet at night beside a house. The insurer will ask for the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. It is worth looking at your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Denton itself
Denton is a town in Greater Manchester, situated approximately 5.6 miles east of Manchester city centre. Denton sits at an elevation of around 105 metres, in a gently undulating landscape of inland North West England. Denton is characterised by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock, with nearby places including Hooley Hill, Kingston, and Audenshaw. Denton has a population of around 24382 people, making it a sizeable urban community in the region.
Denton and Greater Manchester: AdBlue drains across the area
Denton is a town, and our vans that cover it also work the places near it, Kingston and Audenshaw among them, across the M postcode area. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting M34 3.
Shifting the vehicle is not necessary. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Remembrance Garden Denton, a side street close to Progressive Sports: our engineers drain it where it is. Guessing doesn't help behind St Lawrence's Church, close to a border, or somewhere hard to pin down; ring and ask.
Denton motorists: the short version
Read the cap before you tip. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave the car off and phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it sits, anywhere across Greater Manchester.