How It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Fellgate
Leave your engine and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Usually, when the engine hasn't turned, it's emptied and fully purged where the car sits in Fellgate. Reading before the event? Then what follows covers how it happens and how to stop it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
No single liquid but two: that's what plenty of modern diesels near Fellgate and Hebburn Hall Ponds carry, with diesel feeding the motor. Your exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the fumes to fresh them, from its own tank.
Each tank has its own filler. Plenty of motors share a single flap for both, while some put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, your diesel side gets filled all the time. Seldom topped up, AdBlue usually goes in out of a bottle, tipped by a driver who has to stop and think what filler to use. That gap is where the slip lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place in Fellgate
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from your car, and letting it run dry means limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Ely Way, perhaps at The Lakeside Inn on the way home after work.
The old car's filler is where the hand goes — yet a rental car, a new car or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That's the second factor: an unfamiliar motor.
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. Whether it happens in Hedworth or the middle of Fellgate, it's the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Be it a Fellgate forecourt or a driveway over in Wardley, spend a few seconds on these before any is poured in.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally don't.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Look for it.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler sits if it is not by the diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Brockley Whins, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
Anywhere in Tyne and Wear the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Salisbury Way.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" out loud as unscrewing it. It sounds daft. It works.
- The diesel cap stays on. When the two share a flap, confirm it's shut before lifting the bottle.
- Stop when that tank fills or the bottle runs dry; until then, pour slowly through the built-in spout.
- Before starting the vehicle, shut the cap and check a second time that your diesel cap never opened off.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Don't go on to stage five.
Fellgate: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Don't start your motor: that's where the short order of things begins. The fuel pump runs on many diesels as soon as your ignition is switched on — and so leave it off. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is sucked from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
Ask the attendants to help roll your car away from the pump if you are at a forecourt — the Esso, the Asda or somewhere else. Your own drive in Fellgate is where it stays.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the motor has already run. Fellgate lies under 3 miles from the A194(M); there, use the next junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Newcastle upon Tyne, under 5 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Fellgate.
When our technicians arrive around Fellgate, what takes place?
Our engineers come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Fellgate Primary School, near Fellgate Fitness Centre or on your own drive. Both the work and the quote rest on three answers — what fluid, what quantity, and whether it has run — so our engineers ask. That price is given on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
Then that tank is cleared and the system purged thoroughly. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own. Once the filter is cleaned — or renewed, if required — fresh diesel goes in, and finally your vehicle gets tested. Before we go, our technicians start the engine and make sure that it is running correctly.
Unrun vehicles usually need a half-hour job after arrival. The kit is safe on a busy forecourt, and hushed enough for a driveway after dark. No money upfront; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. While we travel, have a look at your policy; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Fellgate itself
Fellgate is a suburban area located on the riverside in Tyne and Wear, with a mix of terraced housing and local amenities. Fellgate sits at an elevation of 32 metres, close to the city of Newcastle upon Tyne, which is approximately 4.9 miles away. Fellgate is situated near other nearby places such as Hedworth, Primrose, and Monkton, and has a population of around 3994 residents. Fellgate forms part of the wider urban area surrounding Newcastle upon Tyne, with London being around 244.8 miles to the south.
AdBlue drains about Fellgate, and Tyne and Wear beyond
Being a residential suburb, Fellgate shares its vans nearby areas — Primrose, Monkton — all the way through NE postcodes and the wider area around them. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting NE32 4.
Shifting the vehicle is not needed. Anywhere it sits — beside Hedworthfield Community Association, in a layby heading to Monkton Community Woodland, on a drive — that's where it is drained. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Lukes Lane Community Centre, ring and ask rather than assuming.
For Fellgate people, the short version
Tip nothing till you have read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave the vehicle off and ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it sits, anywhere around Tyne and Wear.