Why It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Ferncliffe
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and your ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Ferncliffe. Reading in advance? Then what follows explains why it comes about and what to prevent it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Plenty of newer diesels on the roads about Ferncliffe and Bingley carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust stream to clean it.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the layout on a lot of vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in your boot instead. The diesel side is fuelled at the petrol pump all the time. The AdBlue side is topped up far less frequently, normally from a bottle, and normally by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake grows in the gap between them.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place around Ferncliffe
Carelessness rarely explains it. Instead is three things coming up together.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from your car, and letting it run dry leads to limp mode — so a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Fernbank Drive, perhaps at Star on the way home after work.
Then the car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Nothing stops the pour after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it happens in Crow Nest or the middle of Ferncliffe, it's the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Whether a Ferncliffe forecourt or a drive over in Priestthorpe, spend a few seconds on these before any is poured in.
- Check the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually aren't.
- On plenty of vehicles, size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on many vehicles. Check for it.
- Can't see it beside your diesel inlet? Then look beneath the bonnet or inside your boot — the owner's manual will say which.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at Bingley, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
When the light goes on, wherever in West Yorkshire, use this routine.
- Switch off once parked — level ground, engine stopped, and never in a rush beside Brunswick Street on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly. It works.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap, then check once more — confirm your diesel filler stayed shut the whole time. After that, start the car.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Never carry on to step five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Ferncliffe?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with not starting your engine. Do not switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Thinning it with more diesel won't work, because AdBlue settles to the base rather than mixing — and that is where your fuel is drawn from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it is the BP or the Texaco, ask the attendants to help push your car clear of the pump. At home around Ferncliffe? Then the vehicle stays where it is.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Ferncliffe lies under 10 miles from the M606; on it, use the next junction. A short hop across Ferncliffe is a smaller job than a run towards Bradford, under 10 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
Ferncliffe: what takes place when our engineers arrive
The van reaches the vehicle anywhere it stopped — your own driveway, near Sacred Heart Church, or by St Joseph's Catholic Primary School, A Voluntary Academy. What liquid was put in, the amount, and whether it ran: our engineers ask because those answers decide both work and price. During the phone call itself, you are told our price — ahead of anything else.
After that: a drain, then a thorough flush of the entire system. Much more than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: crystals form, some metals corrode, and nothing washes out unaided, no matter how long it is left. After your filter is flushed — or renewed, where required — clean diesel goes in, and then your vehicle gets tested. Before leaving, we start the car and make sure that it is running smoothly.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour once our technicians get there, as long as your motor has not run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet at night outside a house. Your 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 deposit. Before we get there, take a look at your policy; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Ferncliffe
Ferncliffe is a suburban area situated on the riverside in West Yorkshire, with an elevation of around 130 metres. Ferncliffe lies approximately 5 miles from Bradford and is surrounded by nearby places such as Crow Nest, Gilstead, and Old Hills. Ferncliffe has a population of around 7354 people and is predominantly composed of terraced housing. Ferncliffe is located about 176.7 miles from London, making it a relatively distant suburb from the capital city.
AdBlue drains across West Yorkshire, Ferncliffe included
Being a residential suburb, Ferncliffe has the same vans as surrounding areas — Gilstead, Old Hills — right across BD postcodes and the wider area around them. Quickest of all: give a BD16 4 postcode to the van.
Your car does not need to shift. Anywhere it stands — near Bingley Independent Methodist Church, in a lay-by en route to Jerr Wood, on a drive — that is where it is emptied. Guessing won't help behind St Wilfrid's Church, on a border, or somewhere hard to pin down; phone and check.
The short version for Ferncliffe drivers
Read the cap before you pour. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere around West Yorkshire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway — so leave it off then call 0333 366 0103.