Firswood: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then put this page aside a moment, leave the ignition and motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. A drain and a full flush, carried out right where the vehicle stands in Firswood, is normally what it needs when caught before your engine runs. Reading in advance? Then the rest explains why it happens and what to stop it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Many modern diesels on the roads around Firswood and Whalley Range carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Some motors put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot more have both side by side behind one flap. Filling the diesel side at the petrol pump goes on constantly. Rarely topped up, AdBlue usually comes from a bottle, poured by someone who has to stop and think which cap to use. Mistakes happen in the gap between the two.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Firswood: how it takes place
Carelessness seldom causes it. What does is three things lining up at once.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle 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 Brixham Road before work, or in the car park outside The Quadrant on the way home.
Then the car is strange. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spouted bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, after begun, carries on. Whether it occurs in Old Trafford or the middle of Firswood, it's the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A couple of seconds is all these take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a driveway in St Georges or a forecourt around Firswood.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally is not. Read it rather than going by position.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Open the flap and check for a label — many vehicles mark which goes in which inlet just there.
- Can't see it beside the diesel filler? Then check below the bonnet or inside the boot — the handbook says where.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Manchester United Football Club? Ask the person who drove it last before leaving, rather than once the light goes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
Wherever in Greater Manchester the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Stop somewhere level, motor off, with time in hand — never rushing on the side of Ruthen Lane.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you've located the filler and read the cap.
- The two under a single flap? Then confirm the cap on your diesel filler stays closed before raising the bottle.
- Stop once that tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; until then, tip slowly through the own spout.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Find at step two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? So stop right there. Stage five is out.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Firswood?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with not starting your engine. Do not switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is drawn from.
The attendants at Tesco, Esso or any forecourt will normally lend a hand to push the car away if you ask. If you are on your own driveway in Firswood, leave it where it stands.
Already started? Stop when it is sensible, then turn off. The next junction means the place to come off if you are on the A57(M), under 3 miles from Firswood. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Salford, under 3 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Firswood.
Firswood: what happens when our technicians get there
Outside Kings Road Primary School, close to 25th Stretford Scouts or on your own drive: wherever your car has stopped, our engineers come to it. We ask what got in, about how much, and whether it has run, since the answers decide this work and the price. That price is given on the call, before any van leaves.
The system is then rinsed thoroughly, once your tank is cleared. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own. Filter flushed or, where needed, replaced; clean diesel in; then a test of the car. We don't go until it has been started and is running smoothly.
With pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the engine hasn't run need roughly half an hour once our technicians arrive. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. While we travel, take a look at your policy; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Firswood itself
Firswood is a locality in Greater Manchester, situated near the city of Salford and close to the River Irwell. Firswood is characterized by its semi-detached housing and lies at an elevation of around 30 metres, near to nearby places such as Old Trafford and Gorse Hill. Firswood is located approximately 1.8 miles from Salford and is part of the wider urban area of Greater Manchester.
AdBlue drains across Greater Manchester, Firswood included
Firswood is a neighbourhood, and the teams that cover it also work the towns near it, Gorse Hill and Wharfside among them, across the M postcode area. Fastest of all: quote a M16 0 postcode for our van.
The car doesn't need to shift. Wherever it stands — near St. Hilda's Church, Firswood, on a layby en route to Seymour Park, on a drive — that's where it gets drained. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Emirates Old Trafford.
For Firswood motorists, the short version
Always, the cap; then, the pour. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will empty it wherever it is, anywhere across Greater Manchester: switch the vehicle off and ring 0333 366 0103.