Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Fence Houses
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and your ignition off and call 0333 366 0103. Normally, when the engine has not run, it is drained and fully cleaned where your car is around Fence Houses. Not happened yet? Below, the rest of the page covers the reasons it happens and the how to prevent it for good.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Many newer diesels on the roads about Fence Houses and Sedgeletch carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, where spraying cleans the gas.
Each tank has one 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 your boot or under the bonnet. Filling the diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. Far less frequently, the AdBlue side is topped up — mostly from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. The error lives in that gap.
Fence Houses: how AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
On a drive off Britannia Terrace before work, or in the car park at The Beehive heading home: that is where the hurried top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low the car warns you, and if it is gone, limp mode follows.
The old car's filler is where your hand reaches — but a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That is the second factor: a new vehicle.
Third, the spout fits: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in as readily, and after the tip starts, nothing stops it. Whether it happens in Chilton Moor or the middle of Fence Houses, it is the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Be it a Fence Houses forecourt or a drive out in Burnside, spend a couple of seconds on these before anything is poured in.
- Read the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally aren't.
- On many vehicles, the size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Look for it.
- 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.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Chester-Le-Street.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
On the day the warning appears — anywhere you are around Tyne and Wear — a simple routine to follow.
- Turn off once parked — level ground, engine off, and never rushed by Blumer Street on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" aloud as unscrewing it. It seems daft. It works.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start the car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Find at the second or third stage that AdBlue went into the diesel filler? That is where you stop. Skip step five altogether.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Fence Houses already?
Brief list, then. Top of that: your motor stays unstarted. Don't switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is drawn from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
At a forecourt — Esso, JET or any other — the staff will usually help roll the car away, if you ask. At home around Fence Houses? So the vehicle remains where it is.
Where your engine has been run already, stop safely and switch the car off. Leave the A1(M) — under 3 miles out of Fence Houses — at the first exit. Distance counts — a short hop across Fence Houses makes a smaller job than driving under 10 miles towards Durham — so say about how far it went.
Our arrival around Fence Houses, and what takes place next
Our technicians come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Dubmire Primary, near Bank Head Church or on your own drive. We ask what went in, roughly how much, and if it has run, because those answers decide this work and our price. You get that price by phone, before anyone heads out.
Next: draining, then a full flush of the whole system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and none of it washes away unaided. That is why it matters more. Once the fuel filter has been flushed — or renewed, where needed — fresh diesel goes in, and then the vehicle gets tested. We do not leave until it has been started and is running smoothly.
Unstarted cars usually need a half-hour visit from arrival. The kit is fine on a busy forecourt, and hushed enough for a residential street after dark. No money upfront; you settle up that day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Fence Houses
Fence Houses is a village in Tyne and Wear, situated on the banks of the River Wear at an elevation of 56 metres. Fence Houses is located near the city of Durham, with Chilton Moor and Colliery Row nearby, and is characterized by its predominantly terraced housing. Fence Houses has a population of approximately 2837 residents and is part of the wider North East region of England.
AdBlue drains around Fence Houses and across Tyne and Wear
As a village, Fence Houses has the same vans as nearby places — Colliery Row, High Dubmire — right across DH postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. Give a postcode beginning DH4 6, and our van arrives quickest.
The vehicle doesn't need to move. Draining happens on the spot, whether a driveway, a street by St Andrew, or a lay-by towards Elba Park. Awkward to explain, like the back of Fencehouses War Memorial? By a county line? Checking beats guessing, so ring.
The short version for Fence Houses people
First, the cap; then, the tip. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it wherever it stands, wherever in Tyne and Wear: keep it off and call 0333 366 0103.