How It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Ecclesall
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case set this page aside a moment, leave the ignition and engine off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Normally, when the motor hasn't run, it's emptied and fully purged where your car sits around Ecclesall. Here in advance? Then what follows explains why it comes about and what to prevent it ever happening.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
No single liquid but two: that is how plenty of modern diesels near Ecclesall and Greystones Cliffe carry, with diesel for your motor. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Other motors put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others have the two side by side under one flap. Topping up the diesel side at the pump happens all the time. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less regularly. Mistakes happen in that gap between the two.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Ecclesall: how it occurs
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from your car, and running dry leads to limp mode — so a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Dobbin Hill, perhaps at The Prince of Wales on the way home after work.
New-to-you motors are next, as well. Hire cars, new motors and company motors place their fillers in new places, and habit reaches for the cap it used on the old one.
Nothing stops 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. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Ecclesall or out in Banner Cross.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Check these first, on a forecourt around Ecclesall or a drive over in Parkhead. Seconds, that's all.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- On many cars, the size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside the fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Look for it.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler is if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Dore & Totley? Ask whoever drove the vehicle last before leaving, rather than once the light goes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
For the day the light appears — anywhere it is across South Yorkshire — a routine to follow.
- Turn off after you park — flat ground, motor stopped, and never in a rush beside Falkland Road on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" out loud as unscrewing it. It sounds daft. It works.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the vehicle, shut the cap and look again that your diesel cap never opened off.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Never go on to stage five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Ecclesall?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the motor. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch the car on. Diluting it with more diesel fails, since AdBlue settles to the base instead of mixing — and that's where your fuel is pulled from.
At a forecourt — Esso, Tesco or any other — the staff will usually help push your car away, when you ask. If you are on your own driveway in Ecclesall, leave the vehicle where it sits.
Already started? Stop when it is safe, then switch off. Come off the M1 — under 10 miles out of Ecclesall — at the first junction. A short hop across Ecclesall is a smaller job than a run towards Sheffield, under 3 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
Ecclesall: what happens when our engineers arrive
Our engineers come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Clifford All Saints CofE Primary School, close to All Saints Hall or on your own drive. The answers settle this work and the quote, so our engineers ask what got in, about how much, and if it has run. Nobody heads out before you have had the quote over the phone.
The system is then rinsed thoroughly, after that tank is drained. Much more than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: crystals build up, certain metals are attacked, and nothing washes out on its own, however long it sits. The filter cleaned or, where needed, replaced; clean diesel in; and then a test of your vehicle. Before we go, our technicians fire it up and check that it's running correctly.
Unrun vehicles usually mean a half-hour visit after arrival. The kit is fine on a busy filling station, and quiet enough for a residential street late at night. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents your insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Ecclesall
Ecclesall is a suburban area in South Yorkshire, situated approximately 2.5 miles southwest of Sheffield city centre. Ecclesall sits at an elevation of around 195 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation in the area. Ecclesall is close to nearby places such as Banner Cross, Greystones, and Brincliffe, and is home to a population of around 8680 people. Ecclesall is located inland, about 140.5 miles north of London.
Ecclesall and South Yorkshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Over S postcodes, our teams covering Ecclesall — a residential suburb — work the surrounding places too, Brincliffe and Greystones among them. A postcode starting S11 7 gets the van to you fastest.
There's no need to move the vehicle. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street close to Ecclesall All Saints, a lay-by on the way to Brincliffe Edge Plantation, a driveway. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Ecclesall War Memorial.
For Ecclesall motorists, the short version
Always, the cap; then, the tip. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Leave it off then call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, across South Yorkshire.