How It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Dog and Gun
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and your ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, done right where your car sits around Dog and Gun, is usually what it takes if found before your engine runs. Here before the event? Then what follows explains how it comes about and what to prevent it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Not one liquid but two: that is what many modern diesels around Dog and Gun and Dam Wood run, with diesel for the motor. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Many of vehicles have a single flap for the two, whereas some put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Topping up your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on constantly. Far less often, the AdBlue side is filled — mostly from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. That gap is where the error lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Dog and Gun: how it takes place
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from the car, and letting it run out leads to limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Storrington Avenue, perhaps outside The Western Approaches on the way home after work.
Unfamiliar motors are next, as well. Rentals, new motors and company cars put their fillers in new places, and habit reaches for the cap it used on the old one.
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 tip once it has started. Whether it happens in Croxteth or the middle of Dog and Gun, it is the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Fazakerley or a forecourt around Dog and Gun, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually is not. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- Plenty of motors fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Open the flap and look for a label — many motors mark what goes in each inlet right there.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by the diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Fazakerley? Ask whoever drove the vehicle last before leaving, rather than when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
Wherever around Merseyside the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Switch off once parked — flat ground, motor off, and never rushed by Oakgate Close at the roadside.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you have located your filler and read the cap.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Don't carry on to step five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Dog and Gun?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with not starting your engine. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch the car on. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is pulled from — so do not top up with diesel to thin it.
On a forecourt — EG On the Move, another forecourt nearby or any other — the attendants will normally help push the vehicle away, when you ask. If you are on your own driveway in Dog and Gun, leave the vehicle where it is.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Dog and Gun sits under 3 miles from the M57; on it, use the next exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Liverpool, under 5 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Dog and Gun.
Dog and Gun: what happens when our engineers turn up
The van reaches your car wherever it stopped — your own drive, beside Showcase Cinemas, or outside Our Lady and St Philomena's Catholic Primary School. Those answers determine this work and our quote, and so we ask what got in, about how much, and whether it's run. On the phone call itself, you hear our quote — ahead of anything else.
Draining your tank comes next, followed by a full flush of your system. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own. Filter cleaned or, if needed, replaced; clean diesel in; and then a check of the vehicle. Before we leave, we fire it up and confirm that it is running properly.
If the engine 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 after dark. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents an insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Before we get there, have a look at your policy; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Dog and Gun
Dog and Gun is a locality in Merseyside, situated on the riverside near Liverpool, with a mix of terraced housing and local amenities. Dog and Gun has a relatively low elevation of 23 metres, and its proximity to the city of Liverpool has influenced its development. Dog and Gun is close to nearby places such as Croxteth and Norris Green, and is part of the larger urban area surrounding Liverpool.
AdBlue drains around Dog and Gun, and Merseyside beyond
Gillmoss and Norris Green are among the places near Dog and Gun, a small village, that the same teams cover, over L postcodes. Quickest of all: give a L11 9 postcode for the van.
Moving the vehicle is not necessary. Wherever it stands — near Our Lady Queen Of The Martyrs Roman Catholic Church, in a lay-by heading to Scargreen Recreation Ground, on a drive — that's where it is emptied. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Church Of The Good Shepherd.
The short version for Dog and Gun drivers
Before you tip, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave the vehicle off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it sits, anywhere in Merseyside.