How It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Dungiven
Pause here a minute if your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and call 0333 366 0103. A drain and a full flush, carried out just where your car sits around Dungiven, is usually all it needs if found before the motor runs. The rest of this page covers why it happens and how to make sure it does not — useful if you're reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel goes to your motor — yet plenty of current diesels driven about Dungiven and Drumsurn carry another fluid too. Its own tank holds it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, where a spray cleans the fumes.
There's a filler on every tank. Plenty of motors share a single flap for both, while some move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is filled at the petrol pump all the time. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less frequently, normally from a bottle, and usually by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. The slip lives in that gap.
Dungiven: how AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place
It's seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Haste follows from the warning. Your car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a drive off Rock Street, or on the way home in the car park outside the pub in the village.
Unfamiliar cars are next, too. Rentals, new cars and company cars place their fillers in new places, and the hand reaches for the cap used on the old one.
No part halts the tip once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Dungiven or out in Derrynaflaw.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Feeny or a forecourt around Dungiven, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Read the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue ones are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally are not.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on many motors. Check for it.
- The handbook shows where it is when the filler is not next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at the nearest station, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
On the day the warning appears — anywhere you are in County Londonderry — a routine to follow.
- Stop somewhere level, motor off, with time to spare — never hurried on the side of Crown Street.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It seems 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.
- Stop once your tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; until then, tip slowly using its own spout.
- Only then, start the car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Discover during the second or third step that AdBlue went in the diesel tank? That is where you stop. Don't go on to step five.
Dungiven: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with no starting the engine. The fuel pump starts on many diesels as soon as the ignition goes on — so leave it off. Thinning it with extra diesel won't work, because AdBlue settles to the bottom rather than mixing — and that's where your fuel is drawn from.
On a forecourt — the nearest petrol station, another forecourt nearby or another — the staff will normally help push the car away, when you ask. On your own drive in Dungiven? Then the car stays put.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your motor has already run. Dungiven sits over 50 miles from the M77; there, use the next exit. Distance matters — a short hop across Dungiven makes a smaller job than driving under 25 miles towards Derry — so say roughly how far it went.
Dungiven: what happens when our technicians arrive
Outside the local primary school, close to the centre or on your own drive: wherever your car has stopped, we come to it. What fluid was put in, the amount, and if it ran: our technicians ask because those replies set the work and price. Nobody heads out before you have heard our price over the phone.
After that: a drain, then a thorough flush of the entire system. More than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: crystals build up, certain metals are attacked, and nothing clears away on its own, no matter how long it sits. Testing comes last: before that, clean diesel is added, and the filter is cleaned or replaced as needed. The engine is fired up next and checked to make sure it runs correctly, all before our engineers leave.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour after our engineers get there, provided the engine hasn't run — and the pumps our engineers use are fine on a busy forecourt yet quiet at night beside a house. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork your insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Wrong-fuel cover is part of many insurance policies — so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Dungiven itself
Dungiven is a locality in County Londonderry, situated inland at an elevation of 79 metres, approximately 15.9 miles from Derry. Dungiven is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock and is surrounded by nearby places such as Derrynaflaw, Gortnahey, and Burnfoot. Dungiven has a population of around 1356 people and is located in a rural area of Northern Ireland, some 367.1 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across County Londonderry, Dungiven included
Dungiven is a small village, and our teams that cover it also work the places around it, Gortnahey and Burnfoot among them, across the BT postcode area. Fastest of all: quote a BT47 4 postcode for our van.
Your car doesn't need to shift. The drain happens on the spot, be it a drive, a street near a street just off the centre, or a lay-by on the way to the green space at the edge of the village. Awkward to explain, like the back of the far end of the built-up part? Close to a border? Checking is better than assuming, and so phone.
In short, for Dungiven people
Always, the cap; then, the pour. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere around County Londonderry, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same — and so leave the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103.