AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Fritchley: How It Happens and How to Avoid It
Keep your engine and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Normally, if the motor has not run, it is emptied and fully cleaned where the car is in Fritchley. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page explains the reasons it happens and the how to avoid it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Many modern diesels on the roads round Fritchley and Crich carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, where spraying cleans the fumes.
There is a filler on each tank. Plenty of motors have a single flap for the two, while some put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled on each forecourt call-out, week in, week out. Much less often, the AdBlue side is topped up — mostly from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. The error lives in that gap.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Fritchley: how it takes place
Carelessness rarely causes it. Instead is three things lining up together.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out completely, the vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Amber View Road before work, or in the car park outside Red Lion Inn on the way home.
Next, the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old motor — because a rental car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not.
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 once it has started. Mill Green or the middle of Fritchley: it is the same few seconds in both.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Be it a Fritchley forecourt or a driveway over in Ladygrove, spend a few seconds over these before anything goes in.
- Read the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue caps are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually aren't.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside the fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on many vehicles. Look for it.
- The handbook says where it lives when your filler is not next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Ambergate? Check with whoever drove the vehicle last before you set off, rather than once the light goes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
For the day the warning comes on — wherever you are around Derbyshire — a routine to use.
- Switch off after you park — flat ground, engine stopped, and not rushed by Church Street on the verge.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew it. It sounds silly. It does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave it on.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, and check once more — making sure your diesel cap stayed closed throughout. After that, start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Never go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Fritchley?
The short order of things, beginning with no starting your engine. Keep your ignition off as well, since on many diesels switching it on by itself runs the 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 at a forecourt, whether it's the Essar or the UK, ask the staff to help roll the car clear of the petrol pump. On your own drive in Fritchley? So the vehicle stays where it is.
Where your engine has been run already, stop somewhere safe and switch the vehicle off. The next junction is the place to come off when you are on the M1, under 10 miles from Fritchley. A short hop across Fritchley is a smaller job than a run towards Derby, under 15 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
What happens when our engineers get there in Fritchley
Our technicians come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Fritchley CofE (Aided) Primary & Nursery School, near Fritchley Village Hall or on your own drive. Our technicians ask what went in, roughly how much, and if it's run, since the replies decide the work and our quote. The price is given over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
Draining that tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of your system. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. Once the filter has been flushed — or replaced, where required — fresh diesel goes in, and then your vehicle gets tested. The engine is fired up next and tested to confirm it runs correctly, all before our engineers go.
Unstarted vehicles mostly need a half-hour job after arrival. The equipment is safe on a busy filling station, and quiet enough for a driveway late at night. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents an insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies — and so use the wait to look at yours.
About Fritchley and where it is
Fritchley is a small village in Derbyshire, situated on the shores of a lake at an elevation of 143 metres. Fritchley lies approximately 10 miles north of Derby and is surrounded by nearby places such as Mill Green, Bullbridge, and Sawmills. Fritchley has a population of around 565 people and predominantly features detached housing. Fritchley is located in the East Midlands region, about 122 miles from London.
AdBlue drains around Fritchley, and Derbyshire beyond
Bullbridge and Sawmills are among the places near Fritchley, a village, that the same teams cover, over DE postcodes. Fastest of all: give a DE56 2 postcode for our van.
The vehicle does not need to shift. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Thorphill Wood, a side street near Fritchley Friends Meeting House: our engineers drain it where it is. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Fritchley Windmill, ring and ask instead of guessing.
The short version for Fritchley drivers
Read the cap before you tip. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave it off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it waits, anywhere around Derbyshire.