Why It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in East Howdon
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and your ignition off and call 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, carried out just where your car stands in East Howdon, is normally all it takes when caught before the engine runs. Not happened yet? Further down, the page covers the why it takes place and the ways to prevent it altogether.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Plenty of current diesels on the roads about East Howdon and Howdon carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. Your exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the gas to clean it, from a separate tank.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Many of cars have a single flap for both, while others put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Filling your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. Rarely filled, AdBlue normally goes in out of a bottle, poured by a driver who must stop and think what cap to use. The mistake grows in that gap between them.
East Howdon: how AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Telford Court before work, or in the car park outside Willington Quay Social Club on the way home.
Unfamiliar motors are second, too. Hire cars, new vehicles and company cars place their fillers differently, and habit reaches for the cap it used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, once begun, keeps on. Whether it takes place in Howdon Pans or the middle of East Howdon, it's the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Meadow Well or a forecourt in East Howdon, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Read the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue ones are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally are not.
- Many cars give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Check inside the fuel flap: many motors have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- Can't see it beside the diesel inlet? In that case check beneath the bonnet or in your boot — the handbook says which.
- The previous driver will know. Check as you collect a rental or company car — from Brockley Whins's car park, perhaps — not when the warning appears.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
On the day the light appears — anywhere you are around Tyne and Wear — a simple routine to use.
- Stop on level, engine off, with time in hand — not rushing on the side of Telford Street.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap works — once you have found the filler and read the cap.
- The diesel cap stays on. When the two sit under a flap, confirm it's closed before the bottle comes up.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Discover during the second or third step that AdBlue went into the wrong tank? That is where you stop. Don't go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in East Howdon?
Do not start your engine: that's how the short order of things starts. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch it on. Filling up with diesel will not dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the base of your tank, just where the fuel is taken from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it is the the nearest petrol station or the Morrisons, ask the staff to help roll the vehicle away from the pump. Your own driveway in East Howdon is the place it stays.
Already started? Stop once it is safe, then turn off. East Howdon lies under 5 miles from the A194(M); on it, take the next junction. A short hop across East Howdon is a smaller job than a run towards Newcastle upon Tyne, under 10 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
When our technicians get there in East Howdon, what takes place?
We come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Percy Main Primary School, close to East Howdon Community Centre or on your own drive. We ask what got in, roughly how much, and if it's run, since the answers settle the work and the quote. On the phone call itself, you hear our quote — before anything else.
The fuel system is then purged thoroughly, once your tank is cleared. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. Testing comes last: before that, fresh diesel is added, and your filter is flushed or replaced if necessary. Before we leave, our engineers start the car and confirm that it's running correctly.
Using pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where the engine hasn't run take roughly half an hour once our engineers are there. The insurer usually wants an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both once this job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Before we get there, take a look at your policy; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About East Howdon, briefly
East Howdon is a suburban area located on the north bank of the River Tyne in Tyne and Wear, with a mix of terraced housing and local amenities. East Howdon sits at an elevation of 24 metres, close to the coast and near the mouth of the River Tyne, with nearby places including Howdon Pans and Percy Main. East Howdon is situated approximately 5 miles from Newcastle upon Tyne, making it a commuter base for the city. East Howdon has a population of around 1571 residents, living in predominantly terraced homes.
AdBlue drains around East Howdon, and Tyne and Wear beyond
Percy Main and Willington Quay are among the towns near East Howdon, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, throughout NE postcodes. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting NE28 0.
Moving your car isn't necessary. Anywhere it sits — near St John's Parish Church, in a layby en route to Howdon Park, on a drive — that's where it gets emptied. Assuming won't help at the back of St Pauls Centre, on a border, or anywhere hard to pin down; phone and ask.
The short version for East Howdon drivers
First, the cap; after that, the tip. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave the car off and phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it waits, anywhere across Tyne and Wear.