Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Droomer: Why It Occurs
Pause here a minute when your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Normally, when your motor has not turned, it is emptied and thoroughly flushed where your car sits in Droomer. Here in advance? Then what follows explains why it happens and what to prevent it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Not one liquid but two: that's what many newer diesels around Droomer and Bowness-on-Windermere carry, with diesel for your engine. Your exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the gas to clean it, from its own tank.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Plenty of vehicles have a single flap for both, whereas some move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, the diesel side gets filled all the time. Seldom filled, AdBlue usually goes in from a bottle, tipped by someone who has to stop and think what cap to use. That gap is where the slip lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs around Droomer
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the car drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Claife Avenue before work, or in the car park at The Elleray on the way home.
The old car's filler is where the hand reaches — yet a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That is the second thing: a new vehicle.
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. It's seconds, whether out in Heathwaite or bang in the heart of Droomer.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Look at these before pouring, on a forecourt around Droomer or a driveway out in Ferney Green. A few seconds, that's all.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually is not. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- Plenty of cars fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Check inside your fuel flap: many motors carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows which it is when the filler is not next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park at Windermere? Ask the person who drove the car last before leaving, not when the light goes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
Wherever in Cumbria the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Claife Close.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" out loud while unscrewing it. It sounds daft. It does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the vehicle on.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Find during the second or third stage that the bottle went in the wrong tank? That's where you stop. Step five stays out.
Droomer: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Short list, then. First: the motor stays off. The fuel pump starts on many diesels the moment your ignition goes on — and so keep it off. Filling up with diesel will not thin it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the bottom of that tank, just where the fuel is taken from.
At a forecourt — Shell, Cosy Logs or any other — the staff will usually help roll the car clear, when you ask. Your own drive in Droomer is the place it stays.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the engine has already run. Droomer lies under 15 miles from the M6; there, take the next exit. About how far did it go? Hopping across Droomer is smaller a job than a run of under 25 miles to Lancaster, so say.
When our engineers turn up in Droomer, what happens?
By St Martin & St Mary Church of England Primary School, near Queen's Park Bowling Club or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, we come to it. Our technicians ask what went in, about how much, and if it's run, because those replies decide this work and our quote. That quote is given on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
Emptying your tank comes next, then a thorough flush of your system. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and neither washes away unaided. Hence it matters more. A test comes last: before that, clean diesel goes in, and your filter is cleaned or changed if necessary. We do not leave until it has been started and is running correctly.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour once we get there, as long as your engine hasn't run — and the pumps our engineers use are safe on a busy forecourt yet quiet at night beside a house. Your insurer will ask for an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both once this job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. Before we get there, take a look at your policy; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Droomer itself
Droomer is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Cumbria, with a mix of terraced housing and a population of around 3366 residents. Droomer sits at an elevation of 122 metres, near the towns of Heathwaite and Windermere, and is approximately 22.9 miles from Lancaster. Droomer's location in the North West region of England places it about 229.3 miles from London, in a scenic area surrounded by natural beauty.
AdBlue drains across Cumbria, Droomer included
Droomer is a residential suburb, and our teams that cover it also work the places around it, Windermere and The Common among them, across the LA postcode area. Give a postcode that starts LA23 2, and the van gets there fastest.
No need to move your car. Draining takes place right there, be it a driveway, a road by Langstone House, or a lay-by on the way to Queen's Park. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you are near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Lakes Christian Centre.
For Droomer drivers, the short version
Read the cap before you pour. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere around Cumbria, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — and so leave the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103.