How It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Dinting Vale
Leave the engine and ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. A drain and a full flush, done just where your vehicle sits around Dinting Vale, is usually what it needs when caught before the engine runs. Here before the event? Then the rest covers how it comes about and what to prevent it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Plenty of newer diesels around Shaw, like those in Dinting Vale, carry on two liquids; the engine gets just your diesel. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. 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. The diesel side is topped up at the petrol pump all the time. Seldom filled, AdBlue usually comes out of a bottle, tipped by a driver who must stop and think what cap to use. Mistakes happen in that gap between the two.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank take place in Dinting Vale?
It is rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from the vehicle, and letting it run out means limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Dinting Lane, or outside The Grapes on the way home that evening.
Then, the hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old vehicle — because a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
A spouted bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, after begun, carries on. Higher Dinting or the middle of Dinting Vale: it takes the same few seconds either way.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Simmondley or a forecourt around Dinting Vale, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Trust the cap, not its position.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of cars say there which fuel goes where.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler sits if it's 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 at Dinting.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
The day the light goes on, wherever in Derbyshire, use this routine.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Primrose Lane.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly 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.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, and check once more — making sure the diesel filler remained shut the whole time. Only then, start the car.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Stage five stays off limits.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Dinting Vale?
The short order of things, starting with not starting your engine. Leave your ignition off as well, because on many diesels switching it on by itself runs the fuel pump. Diluting it with extra diesel fails, because AdBlue sinks to the bottom instead of blending — and that is where the fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — Tesco, another forecourt nearby or another — the staff will normally help roll the vehicle clear, when you ask. Your own driveway in Dinting Vale is where it should stay.
When the motor has run already, pull over safely and switch it off. The next junction means where to come off if you're on the M67, under 3 miles from Dinting Vale. About how far did it go? Hopping across Dinting Vale is smaller a job than a run of under 15 miles towards Manchester, and so tell us.
Our arrival in Dinting Vale, and what takes place next
Wherever the vehicle has stopped, be it by Dinting Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School, near Holy Trinity or at home, the van comes to it. Our technicians ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether it has run, since the replies determine this work and our price. During the call itself, you hear the price — ahead of anything else.
The system is then purged thoroughly, after the tank is cleared. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own. A test is last: before that, clean diesel is added, and your filter is cleaned or changed as needed. The engine is started next and tested to be sure it runs correctly, all before we head off.
Unrun vehicles mostly mean a half-hour job after the moment we arrive. The equipment is fine on a live forecourt, and hushed enough for a residential street late at night. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork an insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Dinting Vale and where it is
Dinting Vale is a village situated in a riverside setting in Derbyshire, with an elevation of 133 metres. Dinting Vale lies near the communities of Higher Dinting and Lower Dinting, and is also close to Hobroyd. Dinting Vale has a population of around 1261 people and is characterised by predominantly terraced housing. Dinting Vale is located approximately 11.6 miles from Manchester and 154.7 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Derbyshire, Dinting Vale included
Lower Dinting and Hobroyd are among the places around Dinting Vale, a village, that the same teams cover, throughout SK postcodes. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting SK13 7.
The vehicle remains put. Wherever it stands — beside St Luke, on a layby en route to Glossop Cricket & Bowling Club, on a drive — that is where it is emptied. Guessing doesn't help behind Gateway Games & Phones, close to a border, or somewhere awkward to pin down; ring and ask.
For Dinting Vale motorists, the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere in Derbyshire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway — and so leave the vehicle off then call 0333 366 0103.