AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Derrymore: Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It
Leave your engine and ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Caught before the engine runs, it's generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Derrymore. Reading before the event? In that case what follows explains how it comes about and what to stop it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Many newer diesels in Lower Ballinderry, like those in Derrymore, carry on two fluids; the motor takes only your diesel. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, and there spraying cleans the gas.
There's a filler on each tank. Some motors keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others place both together behind one flap. The diesel side is topped up at the petrol pump all the time. Seldom topped up, AdBlue usually comes from a bottle, poured by a driver who has to stop and think what filler it needs. That gap is where the error lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank occur in Derrymore?
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
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 rushed top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low your car tells you, and if it is empty, limp mode kicks in.
Then your car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, after started, keeps on. Whether it takes place in Gawleys Gate or the middle of Derrymore, it is the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Upper Ballinderry or a forecourt in Derrymore.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually is not. Read it instead of going by position.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- Check inside your fuel flap: many cars have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says where it is when your filler isn't next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The previous driver will know. Ask when you collect a hire car or company car — at the nearest station's car park, say — rather than once the warning appears.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
For the day the light appears — anywhere you are across County Antrim — a routine to use.
- Not in a rush on the side of South Crescent, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park then switch off first.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you've found your filler and read it.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where the two sit under a flap, make sure it is shut before lifting the bottle.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start your car, shut the cap and check a second time that the diesel cap was never opened off.
Find during the second or third stage that the bottle went in the diesel tank? That's where you stop. Leave out step five altogether.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Derrymore?
The short order of things, beginning with no starting the engine. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels the moment your ignition is switched on — and so keep it off. Thinning it with extra diesel won't work, because AdBlue settles to the bottom instead of mixing — and that is where the fuel is pulled from.
The attendants at the nearest petrol station, another forecourt nearby or any forecourt will usually lend a hand pushing the vehicle away when asked. On your own drive around Derrymore? Then the vehicle remains where it is.
Where the motor has run already, pull over somewhere safe then switch the car off. Derrymore lies over 50 miles from the M77; on it, take the first exit. A short hop across Derrymore is a smaller job than a run towards Lisburn, under 15 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
When our technicians get there in Derrymore, what occurs?
Anywhere the car has stopped, be it by the local primary school, near the centre or on your own drive, the van comes to it. The replies settle this work and our quote, and so our technicians ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it's run. The price is given over the phone, before any van leaves.
Then that tank is drained and the system cleaned thoroughly. More than with petrol, it counts here: crystals form, some metals are attacked, and none of that washes away on its own, no matter how long it sits. Filter flushed or, if needed, swapped; clean diesel in; and then a test of the vehicle. Before we go, we fire it up and make sure that it is running correctly.
If the motor hasn't run, most 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 after dark. Nothing in advance; you settle up that day. At the end, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. It is worth looking at your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Derrymore, for a moment
Derrymore is a small locality in County Antrim, situated inland at a low elevation of around 12 metres. Derrymore lies near the communities of Gawleys Gate, Aghagallon, and Aghalee, and is approximately 11.6 miles from Lisburn. Derrymore is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its rural setting. Derrymore has a population of around 566 people, according to estimates.
AdBlue drains across County Antrim, Derrymore included
Derrymore is a small village, and the teams that cover it also work the towns around it, Aghagallon and Aghalee among them, across the BT postcode area. A postcode starting BT67 0 gets our van to you fastest.
The vehicle does not need to shift. Anywhere it stands — near a street just off the centre, in a layby heading to the green space at the edge of the village, on a drive — that is where it gets emptied. Awkward to explain, like the back of the far end of the built-up part? Close to a border? Asking beats guessing, so ring.
For Derrymore drivers, the short version
Pour nothing till you've read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Leave the car off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, throughout County Antrim.