Fair Moor: 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 motor and your ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. In Fair Moor, catching it before your motor turns normally means draining and a full flush where it stands. Here in advance? In that case what follows explains why it happens and how to prevent it ever happening.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Not one liquid but two: that is how many modern diesels near Fair Moor and Hebron carry, with diesel feeding your motor. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust stream and cleans it.
Every tank comes with a filler of its own. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in on each filling station visit, week in, week out. Far less commonly, the AdBlue side gets filled — normally from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
Fair Moor: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
It is seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Haste comes from the warning. Your car warns 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 Juniper Court, or on the way home in the car park outside the pub in the village.
Then, the hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old car — since a hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the pour after it has started. Whether it happens in Mitford or the middle of Fair Moor, it's the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A few seconds is all these take — so check them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Pigdon or a forecourt in Fair Moor.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally is not. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- On plenty of motors, size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by your diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before knows. Ask as you pick up a rental or fleet car — from Morpeth's car park, perhaps — rather than once the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
Wherever around Northumberland the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Aspen Way, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park then switch off first.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you have found your filler and read it.
- Leave your 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 starting your car, close the cap and check again that your diesel cap never came off.
Discover during the second or third stage that AdBlue went into the diesel tank? That's where you stop. Leave out stage five altogether.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Fair Moor already?
Brief list, then. First: your engine stays off. Don't switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel will not thin it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the bottom of your tank, right where the fuel is taken from.
Ask the staff to help roll the vehicle clear of the pump if you're on a forecourt — the Shell, the Morrisons or anywhere else. Your own drive around Fair Moor is where it stays.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Fair Moor lies under 15 miles from the A167(M); on it, use the first junction. Mileage matters — a quick hop across Fair Moor is a smaller job than driving under 15 miles to Newcastle upon Tyne — so tell us roughly how far it went.
When our engineers turn up in Fair Moor, what takes place?
Outside Morpeth All Saints Church of England First School, near Morpeth Rugby Football Club or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, our engineers come to it. What liquid was put in, the amount, and if it ran: our technicians ask since the replies set the work and quote. You hear that quote on the phone, before anyone sets off.
Your system is then rinsed thoroughly, after the tank is drained. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and neither washes away unaided. Hence it matters more. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Then we start it and make sure it runs correctly before leaving.
Unrun cars mostly need a half-hour job after arrival. The kit is fine on a busy forecourt, and quiet enough for a residential street after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It is worth checking your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Fair Moor and where it is
Fair Moor is a village situated on the riverside in Northumberland, with a population of around 957 residents. Fair Moor has a mix of housing types, but detached homes are the most predominant. Fair Moor sits at an elevation of 74 metres, near the cities of Newcastle upon Tyne and Morpeth. Fair Moor is located near other nearby places such as Mitford and High Church.
Fair Moor and Northumberland: AdBlue drains across the area
Being a village, Fair Moor shares its vans surrounding places — Morpeth, High Church — right across NE postcodes and the wider area beyond. Fastest of all: quote a NE61 3 postcode for the van.
Moving the vehicle isn't necessary. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Scotch Gill Woods, a side street close to The Church of St.James the Great: we drain the vehicle where it stands. Tricky to explain, like the back of Morpeth Methodist Church? Close to a border? Checking beats assuming, so phone.
For Fair Moor people, the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Leave the vehicle switched off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, across Northumberland.