Ellenbrook: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Leave your engine and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Usually, when the motor has not run, it is drained and fully purged where your car is around Ellenbrook. The remainder of this page explains why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't — useful if you're reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Many modern diesels around Engine Fold, like those in Ellenbrook, carry on two fluids; your engine takes just your diesel. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust stream to clean it.
There is a filler on every tank. Under one flap, side by side: that is the layout on a lot of cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. Diesel goes in at every filling station call-out, again and again. Rarely filled, AdBlue normally comes from a bottle, poured by a driver who must stop and think which cap to use. The mistake lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank happens around Ellenbrook
Carelessness rarely causes it. What does is three things coming up at once.
Hurry comes from the warning. Your car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a drive off Longwall Avenue, or on the way home in the car park at The Woodside.
Then the car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Nothing halts the pour after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Parr Fold or the middle of Ellenbrook: it takes the same few seconds in both.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Check these first, on a forecourt around Ellenbrook or a drive over in Mosley Common. A few seconds, no more.
- Position misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones are often blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually do not.
- Plenty of cars give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Look for it.
- Can't see it next to your diesel filler? In that case check below the bonnet or inside the boot — the handbook will say where.
- Check with 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 Walkden.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
Wherever around Greater Manchester the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Stop on level, engine off, with time in hand — not rushing on the side of Bellpit Close.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you've found your filler and read it.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Finish once the tank fills or the bottle is empty; before that, pour gently through the own spout.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Do not go on to step five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Ellenbrook?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your motor. Leave your ignition off as well, since on plenty of diesels switching it on by itself runs the pump. Thinning it with extra diesel fails, since AdBlue settles to the base rather than mixing — and that is where the fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — Esso, Texaco or another — the attendants will normally help roll your car away, if you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive around Ellenbrook.
Already started? Stop when it is sensible, then turn off. On the M60, under 3 miles from Ellenbrook, that means the next exit. Distance counts — a quick hop across Ellenbrook makes a smaller job than driving under 10 miles to Salford — so tell us roughly how far it went.
What happens when our engineers turn up in Ellenbrook
Our engineers come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Ellenbrook Community Primary School, close to St Mary Ellenbrook or on your own drive. Our technicians ask what was put in, about how much, and if it's run, because those answers determine this work and our quote. You hear that price by phone, before anybody sets off.
Then the tank is drained and your system rinsed thoroughly. Much more than with petrol, it counts here: crystals form, some metals corrode, and nothing washes out on its own, however long it is left. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. The engine is fired up next and tested to be sure it runs smoothly, all before we head off.
If your motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. The insurer usually wants the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both once this job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. It's worth checking your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Ellenbrook and where it is
Ellenbrook is a suburban area in Greater Manchester, situated near the River Irwell and close to the cities of Salford and Manchester. Ellenbrook has a mix of housing types, but is predominantly characterised by detached homes, and is located about 5 miles from Salford. Ellenbrook sits at an elevation of around 55 metres, in a relatively low-lying area of the North West region. Ellenbrook is part of a larger urban area, but retains a distinct identity as a residential suburb.
AdBlue drains in Ellenbrook and across Greater Manchester
Ellenbrook is a residential suburb, and the teams that cover it also work the places around it, Boothstown and New Manchester among them, across the M postcode area. A postcode starting M28 7 gets our van to you fastest.
The car stays put. Wherever it sits — near Boothstown Library, in a lay-by heading to Rands Clough Wood, on a drive — that is where it is emptied. Assuming doesn't help behind Lord Ellesmere's Memorial, close to a border, or anywhere awkward to pin down; phone and check.
In short, for Ellenbrook people
Pour no AdBlue till you've read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave the vehicle off and ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it sits, anywhere across Greater Manchester.