Elton: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case put this page down a moment, keep your ignition and engine off, then call 0333 366 0103. Around Elton, catching it before your motor turns normally leaves a drain and a thorough flush on the spot. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Many current diesels on the roads around Elton and Thornton-le-Moors carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. The exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the fumes to clean it, from its own tank.
There's a filler on each tank. Some cars keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot more have the two together behind one flap. At the petrol pump, your diesel side gets filled all the time. The AdBlue side is topped up far less regularly, usually from a bottle, and usually by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. It's in the gap that the slip lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs in Elton
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
On a driveway off Ince Lane before work, or in the car park at Wheelwright Arms heading home: that is where the hurried top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low the vehicle warns you, and if it's gone, limp mode kicks in.
The old car's filler is where your hand goes — but a rental car, a new car or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That's the second thing: a new motor.
Lastly, the spout goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in as easily, and after the tip begins, nothing halts it. Whether it occurs in Orchard Park or the middle of Elton, it's the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Hapsford or a forecourt around Elton, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Read the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue caps are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally aren't.
- Many vehicles fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of cars say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by your diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says 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 Ince & Elton.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
Wherever around Cheshire the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Stop somewhere level, motor off, with time in hand — not rushing on the side of The Courtyard.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, yes, but it does the trick.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the vehicle, close the cap and check a second time that the diesel cap never came off.
Discover at the second or third stage that the bottle went into the wrong tank? That's where you stop. Step five stays off limits.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Elton already?
Short list, then. Top of it: the engine remains off. The fuel pump starts on many diesels the moment the ignition goes on — and so leave it off. Topping up with diesel won't weaken it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of your tank, right where fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — Shell, Sainsbury's or any other — the attendants will normally help roll your car clear, when you ask. At home around Elton? So your car remains put.
Where your motor has been run already, pull over somewhere safe and switch the car off. On the M56, under a mile from Elton, that means the next exit. Mileage matters — a quick hop across Elton makes a smaller job than heading under 10 miles towards Chester — so tell us about how far it went.
Elton: what takes place when our technicians arrive
Anywhere your car has stopped, be it outside Elton Primary School, beside Elton Community Centre or on your own drive, our van travels to it. Our engineers ask what was put in, about how much, and if it has run, since the replies settle the work and our price. On the phone call itself, you hear the quote — before dispatch.
Next: a drain, then a thorough flush of the entire system. More than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: crystals form, certain metals corrode, and nothing clears away unaided, no matter how long it sits. A test is at the end: before that, clean diesel is added, and the filter is cleaned or changed if necessary. The motor is started next and tested to be sure it runs smoothly, all before our technicians leave.
If the motor hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork your insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. While we travel, have a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Elton itself
Elton is a village in Cheshire, situated near the coast and approximately 6.6 miles from Chester. Elton has a population of around 2970 people and is characterised by semi-detached housing. Elton sits at an elevation of 26 metres, looking out towards the surrounding countryside and the nearby urban developments of Orchard Park and Elton Green.
AdBlue drains across Cheshire, Elton included
Elton is a coastal village, and our teams that cover it also work the places near it, Elton Green and Ince among them, across the CH postcode area. Quote a postcode that starts CH2 4, and our van gets there fastest.
Your car remains put. Anywhere it sits — beside St James the Great, on a lay-by en route to Goldfinch Meadows, on a drive — that's where it gets cleared. Tricky to pin down, like the back of Site of Roman Fortlet? Close to a county line? Checking is better than guessing, and so phone.
Elton drivers: the short version
Tip no AdBlue till you've read the cap. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it where it stands, anywhere around Cheshire: keep the car off then call 0333 366 0103.