Felton: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Pause here a minute when the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then ring 0333 366 0103. A drain and a full flush, done right where the vehicle stands in Felton, is usually all it takes when found before the motor runs. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Plenty of newer diesels around Eshott, like those in Felton, carry on two fluids; your engine takes just the diesel. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it.
Each tank comes with a filler of its own. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, your diesel side gets filled all the time. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less regularly. That gap is where the mistake lives.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank happens around Felton
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Haste comes from the warning. Your car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a driveway off Coquet Vale, or heading home in the car park at Foxes Den.
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 gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Lastly, the spout fits: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in just as easily, and after the pour starts, no part stops it. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Felton or out in West Thirston.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
A couple of seconds is all these take — so check them before you tip anything, on a drive in Swarland or a forecourt in Felton.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually is not. Read it instead of going by position.
- The size. On plenty of motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Look for it.
- The handbook says which it is when your filler is not next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park at Acklington? Ask whoever drove the vehicle last before you set off, rather than when the light goes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
The day the light goes on, anywhere around Northumberland, follow this routine.
- Turn off once parked — flat ground, motor stopped, and never rushed by Main Street at the roadside.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" out loud while unscrewing it. It seems silly. It works.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Stop when the tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; until then, tip gently through its own spout.
- Before you start the vehicle, close the cap and look again that your diesel cap was never came off.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Leave out stage five entirely.
Felton: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Don't start your motor: that is where the short order of things begins. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels as soon as your ignition is switched on — and so leave it off. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is pulled from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it is the the nearest petrol station or the another forecourt nearby, ask the attendants to help roll the car away from the pump. If you're on your own drive around Felton, leave the vehicle where it is.
Where your engine has run by now, pull over safely then turn the vehicle off. The next exit is where to come off when you are on the A167(M), under 25 miles from Felton. About how far did it go? Crossing Felton is smaller a job than a trip of under 25 miles towards Newcastle upon Tyne, and so say.
Felton: what takes place when our technicians get there
We come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Felton Church of England Primary School, near Gallery 45 or on your own drive. The answers decide this work and the price, so we ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it's run. On the phone call itself, you are told our quote — before dispatch.
Your system is then rinsed thoroughly, after your tank is emptied. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more here than with petrol. Once your filter has been flushed — or renewed, where needed — clean diesel goes in, and then the car is tested. Then our engineers fire it up and check it runs correctly before we leave.
With pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where your motor hasn't run need about half an hour once we arrive. The insurer will ask for the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours once this job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Felton, for a moment
Felton is a village in Northumberland, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 42 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Felton lies near the villages of West Thirston, East Thirston, and Old Swarland, and is approximately 22 miles from Newcastle upon Tyne. Felton has a population of around 809 residents, and is located in a rural area of the North East region. Felton is also relatively distant from London, at a distance of approximately 270 miles.
AdBlue drains round Felton, and Northumberland beyond
As a village, Felton shares its vans nearby places — East Thirston, Old Swarland — right through NE postcodes and the wider area beyond. Quote a postcode that starts NE65 9, and the van arrives quickest.
The car stays where it is. The drain takes place on the spot, be it a drive, a street by Felton URC Church, or a layby on the way to Felton Park Woodlands. Guessing won't help behind St Michael & All Angels, on a boundary, or anywhere hard to describe; ring and ask.
The short version for Felton motorists
Pour nothing till you have read the cap. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will empty it where it stands, anywhere around Northumberland: keep it off then call 0333 366 0103.