AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Forton: Why It Happens and How to Avoid It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and your ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. Usually, when the engine has not run, it's drained and fully purged where your car sits in Forton. Reading before the event? In that case what follows covers how it happens and what to prevent it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Many newer diesels on the roads round Forton and Bay Horse carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust gas and cleans it.
There's a filler for every tank. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the layout on many motors. On others, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in the boot instead. The diesel side is fuelled at the petrol pump all the time. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less frequently, usually from a bottle, and usually by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. Mistakes happen in that gap between the two.
Forton: how AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from your car, and running dry leads to limp mode — so a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Coronation Avenue, or at the pub in the village on the way home after work.
Unfamiliar cars are second, as well. Rentals, new motors and company vehicles place their fillers differently, and habit reaches for the cap used on the old one.
A spouted bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, after begun, carries on. It's seconds, be it in Hollins Lane or right in the heart of Forton.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Whether a Forton forecourt or a drive out in Cockerham, spend a couple of seconds on these before any goes in.
- Check the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually aren't.
- Plenty of vehicles give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Open the flap and look for a label — many motors show which goes in which filler just there.
- The handbook says which it is if the filler isn't next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Whoever had it before will know. Ask when you collect a hire car or company car — from Lancaster's car park, say — rather than when the light appears.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
On the day the light appears — anywhere you are across Lancashire — a routine to follow.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Spring Vale.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, yes, yet 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.
- Finish when your tank fills or the bottle runs dry; until then, pour gently through its own spout.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Find at stage two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? Then stop right there. Stage five is off limits.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Forton already?
Short list, then. Top of it: the motor stays unstarted. Keep your ignition off as well, because on plenty of diesels switching it on alone starts your fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is drawn from.
On a forecourt — BP, Esso or any other — the attendants will usually help roll the car clear, when you ask. At home around Forton? Then the car stays where it is.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Forton lies under a mile from the M6; there, use the first junction. Distance counts — a quick hop across Forton makes a smaller job than heading under 10 miles towards Lancaster — so say roughly how far it went.
Our arrival around Forton, and what takes place next
Our van comes to your car anywhere it has come to rest — your own drive, beside Forton URC, or by Forton Primary School. Our technicians ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it has run, because those replies decide the work and the price. No one sets off before you have had the quote by phone.
Your system is then purged thoroughly, once that tank is emptied. Much more than with petrol, it matters here: the crystals form, certain metals are attacked, and nothing washes out on its own, however long it sits. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. After that we start the engine and confirm it runs correctly before we go.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour once we arrive, as long as your motor hasn't run — and the pumps we use are fine on a live forecourt yet quiet at night beside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It's worth looking at your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Forton and where it is
Forton is a small village in Lancashire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 36 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Forton lies approximately 6.7 miles from Lancaster and 202.2 miles from London, making it a relatively rural community. Forton is surrounded by nearby places such as Hollins Lane, Potters Brook, and Shireshead, which contribute to its local character. Forton has a population of around 780 residents, who enjoy the peaceful riverside setting.
AdBlue drains in Forton and across Lancashire
Being a village, Forton shares its vans nearby places — Potters Brook, Shireshead — right through PR postcodes and the surrounding area around them. A postcode starting PR3 0 gets our van to you fastest.
Your car stays put. Draining takes place on the spot, whether a driveway, a street by Forton Village Hall, or a layby on the way to Forton Playing Field. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Shireshead St James, ring and ask rather than assuming.
For Forton drivers, the short version
Tip nothing till you have read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Leave it switched off then call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, across Lancashire.