AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Derrytrasna: How It Happens and How to Avoid It
Keep the motor and ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. A drain plus a full flush, carried out just where your car sits around Derrytrasna, is usually what it needs if found before your engine runs. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it does not.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Many current diesels on the roads around Derrytrasna and Tartaraghan carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. Your exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the fumes to fresh it, from a separate tank.
Each tank comes with a filler of its own. Under one flap, side by side: that's the layout on many vehicles. On others, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. The diesel side is topped up at the pump all the time. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less commonly. That gap is where the slip lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Derrytrasna: how it occurs
It is seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a driveway off Chalet Road before work, or in the car park at the pub in the village on the way home: that is where the hurried top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low the car warns you, and if it is empty, limp mode kicks in.
The old car's filler is where the hand reaches — yet a hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That's the second thing: a strange car.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the pour once it has started. Bannfoot or the heart of Derrytrasna: it is the same few seconds in both.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Look at these first, on a forecourt around Derrytrasna or a driveway out in Aghacommon. A few seconds, that's all.
- Position misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue ones are often blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally do not.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of motors, the AdBlue one.
- Look inside the fuel flap: many cars have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by your diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, 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 at the nearest station.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in County Armagh that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Welsh Place, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park then switch off properly.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew it. It seems daft. It works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Stop when your tank fills or the bottle runs dry; until then, tip slowly through the own spout.
- Shut the cap, then look once more — confirm your diesel filler stayed shut the whole time. Only then, start your car.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Don't go on to step five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Derrytrasna?
Do not start your motor: that is where the short order of things begins. Keep your ignition off too, since on plenty of diesels it alone starts the pump. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — the nearest petrol station, another forecourt nearby or another — the staff will normally help push the car away, when you ask. At home around Derrytrasna? Then the car stays where it is.
Already run? Stop when it's safe, then switch off. Leave the M77 — over 50 miles out of Derrytrasna — at the first exit. Distance matters — a quick hop across Derrytrasna is a smaller job than heading under 15 miles towards Armagh — so tell us about how far it went.
When we arrive in Derrytrasna, what happens?
Wherever the vehicle came to rest, be it outside the local primary school, near the centre or at home, our van comes to it. Which liquid got in, the amount, and if it ran: our technicians ask since the answers set the work and quote. Nobody sets off before you have had the price over the phone.
The fuel system is then purged thoroughly, once the tank is drained. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. A test comes last: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and your filter is flushed or replaced as needed. After that we fire it up and make sure it runs properly before leaving.
Using pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the motor has not run take roughly half an hour once our technicians arrive. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents an insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Before we get there, take a look at your insurance documents; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Derrytrasna, briefly
Derrytrasna is a small locality in County Armagh, situated inland at a low elevation of around 15 metres. Derrytrasna lies near the shores of Lough Neagh and is close to several nearby settlements, including Bannfoot and Derrymacash. Derrytrasna is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock and is located approximately 12 miles from the city of Armagh.
Derrytrasna and County Armagh: AdBlue drains across the area
Derrytrasna is a small village, and the teams that cover it also work the towns near it, Derrymacash and The Birches among them, across the BT postcode area. A postcode starting BT66 6 gets our van to you fastest.
No need to shift your car. The drain happens on the spot, whether a driveway, a road by a street just off the centre, or a layby towards the green space at the edge of the village. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of the far end of the built-up part, ring and ask rather than guessing.
For Derrytrasna drivers, the short version
Always, the cap; after that, the tip. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it where it stands, wherever in County Armagh: keep the car off then phone 0333 366 0103.