East Jarrow: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case set this page down a moment, leave the ignition and engine off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Around East Jarrow, finding it before your engine turns normally means a drain and a full flush where it stands. The remainder of this page covers why it occurs and how to ensure it doesn't — useful if you are reading before it has happened.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Many newer diesels on the roads about East Jarrow and Howdon Pans carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There is a filler on each tank. Plenty of cars share a single flap for the two, whereas some put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is filled at the petrol pump all the time. Far less often, the AdBlue side is filled — mostly from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. It is in the gap that the error happens.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around East Jarrow: how it occurs
It is hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Bedesway before work, or in the car park at The Alexandra hotel on the way home.
The old car's cap is where the hand goes — but a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That is the second factor: a new vehicle.
Nothing stops the tip once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Simonside or the middle of East Jarrow: it takes the same few seconds either way.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A few seconds is all these take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Primrose or a forecourt in East Jarrow.
- Check the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue caps are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually aren't.
- The size. On plenty of cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler sits if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at Brockley Whins, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Tyne and Wear that is.
- Switch off after you park — flat ground, engine stopped, and never rushed by Aidan Court on the verge.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, perhaps, yet it works.
- The two behind one flap? Then make sure the lid on your diesel side stays closed ahead of raising the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, then check again — confirm your diesel cap stayed closed the whole time. Only then, start the vehicle.
Spot at step two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? Then stop right there. Stage five is out.
East Jarrow: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Brief list, then. Top of that: your motor remains off. The fuel pump runs on many diesels the moment the ignition goes on — and so keep it off. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
The staff at BP, Morrisons or any forecourt will usually help pushing the car clear if you ask. Your own driveway in East Jarrow is the place it stays.
When the motor has run already, pull over safely then turn the vehicle off. Come off the A194(M) — under 3 miles out of East Jarrow — at the first junction. Mileage matters — a short hop across East Jarrow makes a smaller job than heading under 10 miles towards Newcastle upon Tyne — so tell us roughly how far it went.
When we get there around East Jarrow, what happens?
Our engineers come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside St Bede's Catholic Primary School, Jarrow, close to Monkwearmouth–Jarrow Abbey or on your own drive. Our engineers ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it has run, because the answers determine this work and our quote. You get that price on the phone, before anybody sets off.
The system is then flushed thoroughly, once the tank is drained. Much more than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: crystals build up, certain metals are attacked, and nothing clears out unaided, no matter how long it is left. Once your filter has been flushed — or renewed, if required — fresh diesel goes in, and finally the vehicle gets tested. Before we go, our technicians start the car and check that it is running correctly.
Using pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the engine has not run take about half an hour after our engineers arrive. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies — and so use the wait to check yours.
About East Jarrow and where it is
East Jarrow is a small suburban area located on the coast of Tyne and Wear, near the city of Newcastle upon Tyne. East Jarrow sits at a low elevation of around 6 metres, with views out to the North Sea. East Jarrow is characterized by its semi-detached housing stock and is situated near other local places such as Simonside and Jarrow.
AdBlue drains across Tyne and Wear, East Jarrow included
Being a residential suburb, East Jarrow has the same vans as nearby areas — Jarrow, Brockley Whins — all the way through NE postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. Give a postcode beginning NE32 3, and our van arrives fastest.
Shifting your car is not necessary. We drain it where it is — a side street close to Saint Paul's Church, a lay-by on the way to Primrose Local Nature Reserve, a driveway. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Bede Museum? Close to a border? Checking is better than assuming, and so phone.
The short version for East Jarrow people
Pour nothing until you have read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it sits, anywhere in Tyne and Wear.