Dowbridge: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case set this page aside a moment, leave the ignition and engine off, then phone 0333 366 0103. In Dowbridge, finding it before the motor runs normally leaves draining and a thorough flush where it stands. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel goes to the engine — but many modern diesels driven about Dowbridge and Newton carry a second liquid too. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust stream to clean it.
There's a filler for every tank. 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. Topping up your diesel side at the pump goes on constantly. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less frequently, normally from a bottle, and normally by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. It is in that gap that the error lives.
Dowbridge: how AdBlue in the diesel tank happens
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
On a driveway off Dowbridge before work, or in the car park outside Stables Bar heading home: that is where the rushed top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low your car warns you, and once it's gone, 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 a second factor: a strange motor.
Nothing stops the pour after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it occurs in Kirkham or the middle of Dowbridge, it's the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Check these first, at a forecourt in Dowbridge or a driveway over in Hall Cross. Seconds, that's all.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually is not. Read it rather than going by position.
- On many vehicles, the size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows where it is when the filler isn't next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- The previous driver will know. Check as you collect a hire car or company car — from Kirkham & Wesham's car park, perhaps — rather than once the warning appears.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
For the day the light appears — wherever you are in Lancashire — a routine to use.
- Stop somewhere level, engine off, with time to spare — never hurried on the side of Blackpool Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" aloud while unscrewing it. It seems daft. It works.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, then look again — making sure your diesel filler remained shut throughout. Only then, start the car.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Step five stays off limits.
Dowbridge: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Do not start your motor: that is how the short order of things begins. The fuel pump starts on many diesels the moment the ignition goes on — and so leave it off. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
The attendants at Texaco, EG On the Move or another forecourt will usually help pushing your car away if you ask. On your own drive around Dowbridge? Then your car remains put.
Already started? Stop when it's sensible, then turn off. The next junction is where to come off when you are on the M55, under 3 miles from Dowbridge. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Preston, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Dowbridge.
Our arrival in Dowbridge, and what occurs next
Wherever your car came to rest, be it by Kirkham St Michael's Church of England Primary School, near 2nd Kirkham (St Michael's) Scout Group or on your own drive, our van comes to it. Both the work and the quote rest on three answers — what fluid, which amount, and if it has run — so our engineers ask. You get that quote on the phone, before anybody sets off.
Next: a drain, then a thorough flush of the whole system. More than with petrol, it matters here: crystals form, certain metals are attacked, and none of it clears away unaided, no matter how long it is left. Once the filter is flushed — or replaced, where required — clean diesel is added, and finally the vehicle is tested. Your engine is started next and tested to make sure it runs correctly, all before our technicians leave.
If the motor hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Dowbridge
Dowbridge is a suburban area in Lancashire, situated on the riverside with an elevation of 16 metres, and is located approximately 6.6 miles from Preston. Dowbridge has a population of around 1249 people and is characterised by semi-detached housing. Dowbridge is close to nearby places such as Kirkham, Treales, and Newton-with-Scales, and is about 194.2 miles from London.
AdBlue drains in Dowbridge and across Lancashire
Treales and Newton-with-Scales are among the places around Dowbridge, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, throughout PR postcodes. A postcode starting PR4 3 gets our van to you fastest.
The car does not need to move. We drain it where it is — a side street near Market Cross, a lay-by on the way to Calder Close Park, a driveway. Guessing doesn't help behind St Michael's Church, on a boundary, or anywhere awkward to pin down; phone and ask.
In short, for Dowbridge drivers
Read the cap before you tip. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere around Lancashire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — and so leave it off and phone 0333 366 0103.