How It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Fishpool
Leave your motor and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Normally, if the motor has not run, it's emptied and thoroughly flushed where the car sits in Fishpool. Here before the event? In that case the rest covers why it happens and how to prevent it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Many modern diesels in Bury, like those in Fishpool, carry on two fluids; your motor takes just the diesel. The exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the fumes to fresh it, from a separate tank.
Each tank has its own filler. Many of vehicles share a single flap for the two, whereas some put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. Rarely filled, AdBlue normally comes out of a bottle, poured by someone who has to stop and think what cap to use. It's in that gap that the error happens.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank take place in Fishpool?
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Devon Street before work, or in the car park at Staff Of Life on the way home.
Next, the hand goes for the cap it knew on the old vehicle — since a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers where your last one didn't.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the tip after it has started. It's seconds, be it out in Redvales or right in the heart of Fishpool.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Whether a Fishpool forecourt or a driveway out in Pimhole, take a couple of seconds on these before anything goes in.
- Read the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue caps are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally aren't.
- On many motors, the size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Lift the flap and check for a label — plenty of cars show which belongs in each filler right there.
- The handbook says where it lives if the filler is not next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at Kearsley, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Greater Manchester that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Nelson Street, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park and switch off first.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, yes, but it does the trick.
- The two under one flap? So make sure the cap on the diesel side is still closed before lifting the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check again, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Discover during the second or third stage that AdBlue went into the diesel tank? That's where you stop. Stage five stays out.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Fishpool already?
Short order, then. First: your engine remains unstarted. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch it on. Diluting it with extra diesel fails, since AdBlue settles to the base rather than mixing — and that's where your fuel is pulled from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it's the Tesco or the BP, ask the attendants to help push your car clear of the petrol pump. On your own drive in Fishpool? Then the car stays where it is.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Fishpool lies under a mile from the M66; there, take the next junction. A short hop across Fishpool is a smaller job than a run towards Salford, under 10 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
When our technicians get there in Fishpool, what occurs?
Wherever the car came to rest, be it outside St Luke's CofE Primary School, near Powerleague or at home, the van comes to it. Both the work and the price depend on three answers — what fluid, what amount, and whether it's run — so our engineers ask. That price comes on the call, before any van leaves.
Emptying the tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the fuel system. 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. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Then we fire it up and check it runs properly before we leave.
Unrun vehicles mostly mean a half-hour visit after arrival. The equipment is safe on a live filling station, and quiet enough for a driveway late at night. Your insurer usually wants the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both once the job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. It is worth looking at your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Fishpool itself
Fishpool is a suburban area in Greater Manchester, situated approximately 7 miles from Salford and 170 miles from London. Fishpool has a population of around 6573 people and is characterised by predominantly terraced housing. Fishpool sits at an elevation of 84 metres, in a gently sloping inland area near the communities of Redvales, Gigg, and Buckley Wells.
AdBlue drains in Fishpool and across Greater Manchester
Gigg and Buckley Wells are among the places around Fishpool, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, throughout BL postcodes. A postcode starting BL9 9 gets our van to you fastest.
Moving the vehicle is not needed. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street close to Gigg Lane, a lay-by on the way to Manchester Road Park, a driveway. Guessing won't help behind Bury Athletic Club, on a boundary, or anywhere awkward to describe; ring and ask.
Fishpool people: the short version
Read the cap before you tip. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave it off then call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere around Greater Manchester.