How It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Dorsey
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and the ignition off and call 0333 366 0103. In Dorsey, finding it before your motor runs normally means draining and a full flush where it stands. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Many newer diesels in Cullyhanna, like those in Dorsey, run on two fluids; the motor takes just your diesel. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust stream to clean it.
Different tanks, separate fillers. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled on every forecourt call-out, week in, week out. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less frequently. The mistake grows in that gap between them.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Dorsey: how it happens
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from the vehicle, and letting it run dry leads to limp mode — so a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Dunskey Street, or outside the pub in the village on the way home after work.
The old car's cap is where your hand goes — yet a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That is the second factor: a new car.
A spouted bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, after started, carries on. It takes a few seconds, whether in Belleeks or bang in the centre of Dorsey.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Be it a Dorsey forecourt or a drive over in Mullaghbawn, spend a couple of seconds on these before anything is poured in.
- Read the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally aren't.
- Many cars give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Check inside your fuel flap: plenty of motors have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- Can't see it beside your diesel filler? In that case check below the bonnet or in your boot — the owner's manual will say which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at the nearest station, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
For the day the warning appears — anywhere you are in County Armagh — a routine to use.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of South Crescent.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" aloud while unscrewing it. It sounds daft. It does the trick.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap and check a second time. 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've already poured into your diesel side. Skip step five altogether.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Dorsey already?
The short order of things, starting with not starting your engine. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels the moment the ignition goes on — and so leave it off. Thinning it with more diesel won't work, since AdBlue sinks to the bottom rather than blending — and that is where your fuel is drawn from.
The staff at the nearest petrol station, another forecourt nearby or any forecourt will normally lend a hand to push the vehicle clear if asked. If you're on your own driveway around Dorsey, leave the vehicle where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the engine has already run. On the M77, over 50 miles from Dorsey, that means the next junction. About how far did it go? Crossing Dorsey is less work than a trip of under 10 miles to Newry, so say.
Our arrival in Dorsey, and what takes place next
Outside the local primary school, close to the centre or on your own driveway: wherever the car has stopped, our technicians come to it. What fluid got in, the quantity, and whether it ran: we ask since the answers set both work and price. You get that price by phone, before anyone heads out.
Next: a drain, then a thorough flush of the whole system. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Before we go, we fire it up and make sure that it's running correctly.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour once we arrive, provided the engine has not run — and the pumps we use are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet after dark outside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It's worth looking at your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Dorsey
Dorsey is a locality in County Armagh, situated inland at an elevation of 211 metres, approximately 7 miles from Newry. Dorsey is characterised by its detached housing and rural setting, with nearby places including Belleeks, Silverbridge, and Lislea. Dorsey has a population of around 712 people and is located about 323 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across County Armagh, Dorsey included
Dorsey is a small village, and the vans that cover it also work the towns around it, Silverbridge and Lislea among them, across the BT postcode area. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting BT35 9.
The car does not need to move. Anywhere it sits — near a street just off the centre, in a layby heading to the green space at the edge of the village, at home — that's where it gets drained. Awkward to explain, like the back of the far end of the built-up part? By a county line? Checking is better than guessing, and so ring.
For Dorsey drivers, the short version
Read the cap before you tip. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it stands, anywhere in County Armagh.