How It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in East Ardsley
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then set this page down for now, keep the ignition and engine off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Normally, when your engine hasn't turned, it's emptied and fully purged where your vehicle sits around East Ardsley. The rest of this page explains why it occurs and how to ensure it does not — handy if you're reading ahead of time.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Many modern diesels around Carr Gate, as well as East Ardsley, run on two fluids; your motor gets just the diesel. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank comes with a filler of its own. Under one flap, side by side: that's the arrangement on many motors. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in your boot instead. The diesel side is fuelled at the petrol pump all the time. The AdBlue side is topped up far less regularly, normally from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake grows in that gap between the two.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around East Ardsley: how it takes place
It is hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out completely, your vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Church Lane before work, or in the car park at East Ardsley Conservative Club on the way home.
Then the car is new. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Third, the spout goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in as easily, and after the tip starts, nothing halts it. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of East Ardsley or out in The Fall.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Look at these first, on a forecourt in East Ardsley or a driveway over in Lawns. Seconds, that's all.
- Position misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones are often blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually do not.
- On plenty of motors, size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Open the flap and check for a label — many cars show what belongs in which filler just there.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by your diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Outwood.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
On the day the warning comes on — wherever it is across West Yorkshire — a routine to use.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Laburnum Close.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, yes, yet it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the vehicle on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the car, shut the cap and look a second time that your diesel cap never came off.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Skip step five altogether.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around East Ardsley?
Don't start the motor: that's where the short order of things starts. The fuel pump starts on many diesels the moment your ignition goes on — so keep it off. Diluting it with extra diesel won't work, because AdBlue sinks to the bottom rather than mixing — and that is where the fuel is pulled from.
At a forecourt — Esso, BP or any other — the attendants will normally help roll your car clear, when you ask. If you are on your own driveway in East Ardsley, leave the vehicle where it is.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. East Ardsley lies under a mile from the M1; there, take the first exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Wakefield, under 5 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across East Ardsley.
Our arrival in East Ardsley, and what happens next
By East Ardsley Primary Academy, near St Michaels Church or on your own driveway: wherever the vehicle has stopped, we come to it. The replies decide this work and the quote, so our technicians ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it's run. The quote comes on the call, before any van leaves.
The fuel system is then flushed thoroughly, once the tank is cleared. 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. Once your filter has been cleaned — or renewed, where needed — fresh diesel is added, and then your vehicle gets tested. Before we go, our technicians start the engine and check that it's running correctly.
With pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your engine has not run take roughly half an hour after our engineers are there. The insurer will ask for an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. Wrong-fuel cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — so make use of the wait to check yours.
About East Ardsley
East Ardsley is a village in West Yorkshire, situated approximately 3.3 miles from Wakefield and 164.2 miles from London. East Ardsley sits at an elevation of around 136 metres, with nearby places including The Fall, Black Gates, and Thorpe on the Hill. East Ardsley has a population of around 1750 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. East Ardsley remains a small, residential community with a rural character.
AdBlue drains around East Ardsley and across West Yorkshire
Being a rural village, East Ardsley shares its vans nearby areas — Black Gates, Thorpe on the Hill — right through WF postcodes and the wider area beyond. A postcode starting WF3 2 gets our van to you fastest.
Moving the car is not necessary. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street close to East Ardsley Colliery Memorial, a lay-by on the way to The Rec, a drive. Tricky to pin down, like the back of East Ardsley St Gabriels Church Youth Club? By a border? Asking beats guessing, and so phone.
The short version for East Ardsley drivers
Read the cap before you tip. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere in West Yorkshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — so leave the car off and phone 0333 366 0103.