Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Derrymacash: Why It Happens
Keep the motor and ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Around Derrymacash, finding it before the motor runs normally means draining and a thorough flush on the spot. Reading before the event? In that case what follows explains why it comes about and how to stop it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Diesel feeds your motor — but many current diesels driven about Derrymacash and Lurgan hold a second fluid as well. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There's a filler on every tank. Many of cars share a single flap for the two, while others put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, your diesel side gets filled constantly. Much less frequently, the AdBlue side gets filled — normally from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. The mistake lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank occur around Derrymacash?
It's rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Hurry comes from the warning. The car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a driveway off South Crescent, or on the way home in the car park outside the pub in the village.
New-to-you cars are second, as well. Hire cars, new cars and company cars put their fillers differently, and habit reaches for the cap used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, after begun, keeps on. Whether it takes place in Aghacommon or the middle of Derrymacash, it is the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
A couple of seconds is all these take — so check them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Gibsons Hill or a forecourt in Derrymacash.
- Read the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally are not.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of motors, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of cars say there which fuel goes where.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler is if it is not by the diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside the nearest station.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
The day the light goes on, anywhere across County Armagh, use this routine.
- Switch off once parked — flat ground, motor off, and not rushed by Dunskey Street at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the vehicle on.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check again, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Find at the second or third stage that AdBlue went in the diesel tank? That's where you stop. Never carry on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Derrymacash?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the motor. The fuel pump runs on many diesels as soon as your ignition is switched on — so keep it off. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is drawn from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
Ask the attendants to help roll the vehicle away from the petrol pump if you're on a forecourt — the the nearest petrol station, the another forecourt nearby or somewhere else. At home in Derrymacash? Then the vehicle remains where it is.
Already started? Stop when it's safe, then turn off. Come off the M77 — over 50 miles out of Derrymacash — at the first exit. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Armagh, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Derrymacash.
Derrymacash: what occurs when our technicians get there
We come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside the local primary school, near the centre or on your own drive. Our technicians ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether it's run, because those answers settle the work and the quote. On the phone call itself, you hear the quote — before dispatch.
Your system is then flushed thoroughly, after the tank is drained. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. The filter cleaned or, if it must be, swapped; fresh diesel in; then a test of your car. Your engine is started next and tested to make sure it runs properly, all before we go.
If the motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. No money in advance; you settle up on the day. At the end, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. It's worth looking at your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Derrymacash itself
Derrymacash is a small locality in County Armagh, situated inland at an elevation of 23 metres, approximately 13.5 miles from the city of Armagh. Derrymacash is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock and is located near other settlements such as Aghacommon and Derrytrasna. Derrymacash has a population of around 794 people and is part of the wider Craigavon area.
Derrymacash and County Armagh: AdBlue drains across the area
As a small village, Derrymacash has the same vans as surrounding areas — Craigavon, Derrytrasna — right across BT postcodes and the wider area beyond. Fastest of all: quote a BT66 6 postcode to our van.
The vehicle does not need to move. Anywhere it sits — beside a street just off the centre, on a layby en route to the green space at the edge of the village, on a drive — that is where it is drained. Awkward to pin down, like the back of the far end of the built-up part? Close to a border? Asking is better than guessing, and so phone.
Derrymacash people: the short version
Read the cap before you tip. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave the car off and ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere in County Armagh.