AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Featherstone: Why It Happens and How to Stop It
Stop reading for a moment when the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then phone 0333 366 0103. In Featherstone, catching it before the engine runs normally means draining and a thorough flush where it stands. The rest of this page covers why it happens and how to make sure it does not — handy if you're reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Not one liquid but two: that's what plenty of modern diesels near Featherstone and Snydale run, with diesel for the engine. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust gas and cleans it.
There is a filler on every tank. Many of motors have a single flap for the two, whereas some put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Topping up your diesel side at the petrol pump happens constantly. Rarely filled, AdBlue normally comes out of a bottle, poured by a driver who has to stop and think which cap it needs. It's in that gap that the error lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Featherstone: how it happens
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out completely, your vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Girnhill Lane before work, or in the car park at Girnhill Lane WMC on the way home.
Then, the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old car — since a hire car, a new car or a company car places 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 once it has started. Purston Jaglin or the heart of Featherstone: it is the same few seconds in both.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A few seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a drive in Ackton or a forecourt around Featherstone.
- Position can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue caps are often blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually don't.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- Look inside the fuel flap: plenty of vehicles carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler sits if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park at the nearest station? Check with the person who drove it last before leaving, rather than when the light goes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
For the day the light comes on — anywhere you are around West Yorkshire — a simple routine to use.
- Not in a rush on the side of Station Lane, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park and switch off first.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew it. It seems daft. It works.
- Both behind one flap? So confirm the lid on the diesel filler stays shut before raising the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, then check once more — confirm the diesel cap stayed closed throughout. Only then, start your car.
Find during the second or third step that AdBlue went in the wrong filler? That is where you stop. Never go on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Featherstone already?
Don't start the engine: that is how the short order of things starts. The fuel pump runs on many diesels the moment the ignition goes on — so keep it off. Diluting it with more diesel won't work, because AdBlue settles to the base rather than mixing — and that is where the fuel is pulled from.
On a forecourt — Gulf, BP or any other — the staff will usually help roll the vehicle away, when you ask. Your own driveway around Featherstone is the place it stays.
Where your motor has been run already, stop safely then turn the car off. On the M62, under 3 miles from Featherstone, that means the next exit. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Featherstone is smaller work than a run of under 10 miles to Wakefield, so tell us.
When we get there in Featherstone, what happens?
By Featherstone Purston St Thomas Church of England Voluntary Controlled Junior School, near Featherstone Library and Community Centre or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our technicians come to it. Those replies determine this work and the quote, and so we ask what went in, roughly how much, and if it's run. The price is given over the phone, before any van leaves.
Draining that tank comes next, then a thorough flush of the fuel system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and neither washes away by itself. That is why it counts more. Testing is last: before that, clean diesel is added, and the filter is flushed or changed as needed. We do not leave until it has been started and is running smoothly.
Unstarted vehicles mostly need a half-hour visit after arrival. The kit is safe on a busy filling station, and hushed enough for a residential street late at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. While we travel, have a look at your policy; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Featherstone itself
Featherstone is a town located inland in West Yorkshire, England, situated near the city of Pontefract. It is part of the City of Wakefield and has a railway station that connects it to the surrounding area. The town has a long history dating back to its roots in the West Riding of Yorkshire. Featherstone is a notable settlement in the region with its own distinct character.
Featherstone and West Yorkshire: AdBlue drains across the area
As a town, Featherstone has the same vans as nearby places — Strawberry Hill, West Hardwick — all the way across WF postcodes and the surrounding area around them. Fastest of all: quote a WF7 5 postcode to the van.
Moving your car is not needed. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Girnhill Lane Community Garden, a side street close to Featherstone Methodist Church: our engineers drain it where it is. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of St Thomas, ring and ask instead of assuming.
For Featherstone drivers, the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway, leave the car off and phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere across West Yorkshire.