How It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Eccleston
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case put this page down a moment, leave the ignition and engine off, then phone 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, done right where your vehicle sits around Eccleston, is usually what it needs when caught before the engine runs. Here before the event? In that case what follows covers why it happens and what to stop it ever happening.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Plenty of modern diesels on the roads about Eccleston and Gillars Green carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, where a spray cleans the fumes.
There's a filler on each tank. Many of vehicles have a single flap for the two, whereas some put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled at each forecourt call-out, week in, week out. Rarely filled, AdBlue usually goes in out of a bottle, tipped by a driver who has to stop and think which filler to use. The error lives in that gap.
Eccleston: how AdBlue in the diesel tank happens
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
Haste follows from the warning. The car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a driveway off The Cloisters, or on the way home in the car park outside Griffin Inn.
New-to-you motors are second, too. Hire cars, new vehicles and company motors put their fillers in new places, and habit reaches for the cap used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the pour once it has started. It takes a few seconds, be it out in Windle or bang in the centre of Eccleston.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Look at these first, at a forecourt around Eccleston or a drive out in Dentons Green. Seconds, no more.
- Check the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally aren't.
- On many motors, the size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler sits if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Thatto Heath.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
The day the light goes on, anywhere across Merseyside, follow this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Chapel Lane, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park then switch off first.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- The two behind one flap? So confirm the cap on your diesel side is still shut before lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start your car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Find at stage two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? Then stop right there. Don't go on to step five.
Eccleston: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Brief list, then. Top of it: your engine stays off. Keep your ignition off too, because on many diesels switching it on by itself runs the fuel pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is drawn from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
Ask the staff to help push your car clear of the petrol pump if you're at a forecourt — the Texaco, the Tesco or anywhere else. Your own driveway in Eccleston is where it stays.
Already started? Stop when it's sensible, then switch off. The next junction is the place to come off when you're on the M57, under 3 miles from Eccleston. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Eccleston is smaller work than a trip of under 10 miles towards Liverpool, and so tell us.
When we arrive around Eccleston, what happens?
Outside St Julie's Catholic Primary School, close to Christ Church or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, our engineers come to it. Our technicians ask what got in, roughly how much, and if it's run, because the replies decide the work and the price. During the call itself, you hear the quote — ahead of anything else.
Draining the tank comes next, then a thorough flush of the system. 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. After the fuel filter has been cleaned — or renewed, if required — fresh diesel goes in, and then your vehicle is tested. We don't leave until it has been started and is running smoothly.
If your engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It is worth looking at your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Eccleston
Eccleston is a suburban area in Merseyside, situated near the River Alt and close to the cities of Liverpool and St Helens. Eccleston has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are particularly prevalent, and its population is around 6028 people. Eccleston is located near other local places such as Windle, West Park, and Newtown, and it is about 8.9 miles from Liverpool. Eccleston's elevation is approximately 43 metres above sea level, reflecting its low-lying riverside setting.
AdBlue drains in Eccleston and across Merseyside
Eccleston is a residential suburb, and our teams that cover it also work the towns near it, West Park and Newtown among them, across the WA postcode area. Fastest of all: quote a WA10 5 postcode to our van.
Shifting the vehicle isn't needed. The drain takes place right there, whether a driveway, a street by Smithy Heritage Centre, or a lay-by towards Mill Brow Local Nature Reserve. Awkward to explain, like the back of Eccleston Library? Close to a border? Checking beats guessing, so ring.
In short, for Eccleston drivers
Before you pour, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere around Merseyside, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless — so leave the vehicle off then call 0333 366 0103.