Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Dunseverick: Why It Occurs
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and the ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. Usually, if your motor hasn't run, it's drained and fully purged where the car is in Dunseverick. Not happened yet? Below, the page explains the reasons it happens and the ways to avoid it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Plenty of current diesels on the roads about Dunseverick and Portbraddon carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, and there spraying cleans the fumes.
Each tank has its own filler. Many of cars share a single flap for both, while others move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in on every forecourt visit, week in, week out. Much less frequently, the AdBlue side is topped up — normally from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. It's in the gap that the mistake lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Dunseverick: how it takes place
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the vehicle, and letting it run dry means limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Frederick Crescent, or at the pub in the village on the way home after work.
Then, your hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old vehicle — since a rental car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
Nothing halts the tip after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it takes place in Bushmills or the middle of Dunseverick, it is the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Be it a Dunseverick forecourt or a driveway over in Moss-Side, spend a couple of seconds over these before any is poured in.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally don't.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Look for it.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by the diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park at the nearest station? Ask the person who drove the car last before leaving, rather than once the light goes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around County Antrim that is.
- Stop on level, engine off, with time in hand — never hurried on the side of Texa Crescent.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- Both under a single flap? Then make sure the cap on the diesel side is still shut ahead of raising 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 a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Don't go on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Dunseverick already?
Brief order, then. Top of it: the engine remains unstarted. Do not switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Thinning it with more diesel won't work, because AdBlue settles to the base instead of blending — and that's where your fuel is sucked from.
The attendants at the nearest petrol station, another forecourt nearby or any forecourt will usually help to push the car away if you ask. On your own drive around Dunseverick? So the car remains where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your motor has already run. The next exit is the place to leave if you are on the M77, over 50 miles from Dunseverick. Distance matters — a short hop across Dunseverick makes a smaller job than driving under 50 miles towards Derry — so say roughly how far it went.
When our engineers turn up in Dunseverick, what takes place?
Our technicians come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside the local primary school, near the centre or on your own driveway. The replies determine the work and the price, and so we ask what got in, roughly how much, and if it has run. Nobody heads out until you've had the price by phone.
Then the tank is cleared and your system rinsed thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Your engine is started next and tested to confirm it runs properly, all before we go.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour after our technicians get there, provided the engine has not run — and the pumps our engineers use are safe on a live forecourt and quiet at night outside a house. Nothing upfront; you settle up that day. At the end, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. Before we get there, take a look at your policy; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Dunseverick itself
Dunseverick is a small coastal locality in County Antrim, situated near the villages of Bushmills and Portballintrae. Dunseverick lies on the north coast of Northern Ireland, approximately 44 metres above sea level, and is within driving distance of the nearby city of Derry. Dunseverick is characterised by its detached housing and scenic coastal setting, with the nearby town of Ballintoy also being a notable neighbouring settlement.
AdBlue drains around Dunseverick, and County Antrim beyond
Portballintrae and Ballintoy are among the towns near Dunseverick, a coastal area, that the same teams cover, over BT postcodes. A postcode starting BT57 8 gets the van to you fastest.
The car doesn't need to shift. Draining happens on the spot, whether a drive, a road near a street just off the centre, or a layby towards the green space at the edge of the village. Tricky to explain, like the back of the far end of the built-up part? By a county line? Asking is better than assuming, and so phone.
Dunseverick people: the short version
Tip no AdBlue till you've read the cap. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will empty it where it is, wherever across County Antrim: keep it off then call 0333 366 0103.