Ellistown: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and the ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Ellistown. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it does not.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Diesel goes to your motor — yet many newer diesels seen round Ellistown and Bardon hold another fluid too. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust stream and cleans it.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the arrangement on a lot of cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. Diesel goes in at every forecourt visit, week in, week out. The AdBlue side is filled far less regularly, usually from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. It is in that gap that the slip lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Ellistown: how it occurs
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
On a driveway off Old School Close before work, or in the car park at the pub in the village heading home: that is where the rushed top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and once it is empty, limp mode follows.
Unfamiliar motors are next, as well. Rentals, new motors and company vehicles put their fillers in new places, and the hand reaches for the cap it used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, once started, carries on. It takes seconds, whether out in Battram or bang in the centre of Ellistown.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Look at these before pouring, on a forecourt around Ellistown or a drive over in Ibstock. Seconds, that's all.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Trust the cap, not its position.
- Plenty of motors fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Look inside the fuel flap: many motors have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows where it lives if the filler is not next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Loughborough.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
Wherever in Leicestershire the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Pull in on level, motor off, with time to spare — never rushing on the side of Clay Lane.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start the car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Discover at the second or third stage that the bottle went in the wrong tank? That is where you stop. Skip step five altogether.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Ellistown?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the engine. Leave your ignition off too, because on many diesels it by itself runs your pump. Diluting it with extra diesel fails, because AdBlue sinks to the bottom rather than mixing — and that is where the fuel is sucked from.
At a forecourt — Asda, Shell or another — the attendants will usually help roll the vehicle clear, when you ask. At home around Ellistown? So the car remains put.
Already started? Stop once it's sensible, then switch off. The next exit means the place to come off if you're on the M1, under 5 miles from Ellistown. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Leicester, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Ellistown.
What occurs when our engineers arrive in Ellistown
Anywhere the car has stopped, be it by Ellistown Community Primary School, near St Christopher or at home, the van travels to it. Both the work and our price depend on three replies — what liquid, what quantity, and whether it has run — so we ask. Nobody heads out before you have had our price over the phone.
After that: draining, then a thorough flush of the whole system. Much more than with petrol, it matters here: the crystals form, certain metals are attacked, and nothing washes out on its own, however long it sits. Filter flushed or, where it must be, swapped; clean diesel in; and then a check of your vehicle. Next our technicians start the engine and check it runs correctly before we go.
Unrun cars usually mean a half-hour job after arrival. The equipment is safe on a busy filling station, and quiet enough for a residential street late at night. No money upfront; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. It's worth looking at your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Ellistown and where it is
Ellistown is a village in Leicestershire, situated approximately 10.5 miles northwest of Leicester, at an elevation of around 165 metres. Ellistown lies near the villages of Battram, Hugglescote, and Donington le Heath, in a rural area of the East Midlands. Ellistown has a population of around 1580 people, predominantly living in detached housing. Ellistown is about 97.4 miles northwest of London, making it a relatively accessible rural community.
AdBlue drains around Ellistown, and Leicestershire beyond
Hugglescote and Donington le Heath are among the towns around Ellistown, a rural village, that the same teams cover, throughout LE postcodes. Fastest of all: give a LE67 1 postcode to our van.
The vehicle doesn't need to shift. We drain it where it is — a side street near Ellistown Football Club, a lay-by on the way to Penny Wakefield Community Woodland, a driveway. Guessing won't help behind Battram Access Centre, close to a boundary, or anywhere awkward to pin down; ring and check.
In short, for Ellistown drivers
Read the cap before you pour. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it where it stands, wherever across Leicestershire: keep it off then ring 0333 366 0103.