How It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Fairhaven
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then set this page down for now, keep your ignition and engine off, then call 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Fairhaven. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it does not.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Diesel feeds the motor — but plenty of current diesels seen about Fairhaven and Lytham St Annes hold another fluid too. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Plenty of vehicles have a single flap for the two, whereas others move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, the diesel side gets filled all the time. Far less commonly, the AdBlue side is topped up — normally from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. The mistake lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs in Fairhaven
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
On a driveway off Inner Promenade before work, or in the car park at The Fairhaven heading home: that's where the rushed top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low your car tells you, and if it's empty, limp mode follows.
Then your car is new. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Third, the spout goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in just as easily, and after the tip starts, nothing halts it. Whether it happens in Ansdell or the middle of Fairhaven, it's the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Whether a Fairhaven forecourt or a drive over in St Annes, spend a few seconds over these before any is poured in.
- Read the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue caps are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally aren't.
- Many vehicles fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Open the filler flap and look for a label — many vehicles mark which goes in which inlet just there.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by your diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Check when you collect a hire car or company car — at Ansdell & Fairhaven's car park, say — rather than once the light appears.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Lancashire that is.
- Pull in on level, motor off, with time to spare — never rushing on the side of Clifton Drive.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you've found your filler and read the cap.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where the two sit under a flap, confirm it's closed before the bottle comes up.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, and look again — confirm the diesel cap stayed shut throughout. Only then, start your car.
Spot at stage two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? So stop just there. Do not go on to stage five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Fairhaven?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your engine. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch the car on. Diluting it with extra diesel won't work, since AdBlue settles to the base instead of mixing — and that is where your fuel is sucked from.
The attendants at Shell, Texaco or another forecourt will usually help pushing the car clear if you ask. At home in Fairhaven? Then your car remains where it is.
When your engine has been run by now, pull over safely and turn the car off. Leave the M55 — under 5 miles out of Fairhaven — at the first exit. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Fairhaven is less a job than a run of under 15 miles towards Preston, and so tell us.
What takes place when our engineers turn up around Fairhaven
The van comes to your car wherever it stopped — your own drive, beside The White Church, or by Ansdell Primary School. Our technicians ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it has run, because those replies decide this work and our price. You get that price by phone, before anyone heads out.
Your system is then rinsed thoroughly, after that tank is cleared. More than with petrol, it counts here: crystals form, certain metals are attacked, and none of it clears away unaided, however long it sits. A test is last: before that, clean diesel goes in, and your filter is flushed or changed if necessary. After that we fire it up and make sure it runs smoothly before we leave.
Using pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where your motor has not run take about half an hour once our engineers are there. Your insurer will ask for the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. It's worth looking at your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Fairhaven itself
Fairhaven is a coastal suburban area in Lancashire, situated near the towns of Lytham and Ansdell. Fairhaven has a relatively low elevation of around 9 metres above sea level, and its population is approximately 3533 people. Fairhaven is characterized by its predominant semi-detached housing stock, which reflects the typical residential development of the area. Fairhaven is located near the city of Preston, which is about 12 miles away, and is also about 195 miles northwest of London.
AdBlue drains across Lancashire, Fairhaven included
Fairhaven is a residential suburb, and our teams that cover it also work the towns around it, Hey Houses and Lytham among them, across the FY postcode area. A postcode starting FY8 1 gets the van to you fastest.
Your car does not need to move. We drain it where it is — a side street close to St Paul, a lay-by on the way to Fairhaven Lake, a drive. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Ansdell Library, ring and ask rather than guessing.
For Fairhaven people, the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it where it is, anywhere in Lancashire: switch it off then call 0333 366 0103.