AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Fulwell: How It Happens and How to Avoid It
Leave your engine and ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Caught before the engine runs, it is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Fulwell. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page covers the reasons it occurs and the ways to prevent it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
No single fluid but two: that is what many modern diesels near Fulwell and Carley Hill run, with diesel feeding the motor. Your exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the gas to fresh it, from a separate tank.
Different tanks, separate fillers. Some motors keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others have the two together under one flap. The diesel side is topped up at the pump all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less regularly, usually from a bottle, and usually by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the mistake lives.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank take place around Fulwell?
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
On a driveway off Dykelands Road before work, or in the car park outside Bluebell heading home: that is where the rushed top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the car warns you, and if it's gone, limp mode kicks in.
Next, your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old vehicle — since a hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not.
A spout-topped bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, once begun, carries on. Whether it occurs in Seaburn or the middle of Fulwell, it is the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Look at these first, at a forecourt around Fulwell or a driveway out in South Bents. Seconds, no more.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- On plenty of cars, the size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many cars say there which fuel goes where.
- Can't find it next to your diesel inlet? Then look beneath the bonnet or in the boot — the owner's manual will say which.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Seaburn.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Tyne and Wear that is.
- Switch off after you park — flat ground, motor stopped, and not in a rush beside Keswick Avenue on the verge.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" out loud while unscrewing it. It seems daft. It does the trick.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Finish when the tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; until then, tip gently through the own spout.
- Before you start the car, close the cap and check again that the diesel cap never opened off.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Skip stage five entirely.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Fulwell already?
Don't start the motor: that is how the short order of things begins. Keep the ignition off as well, since on plenty of diesels it alone starts the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel won't weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the base of the tank, just where fuel is taken from.
Ask the attendants to help push the car clear of the pump if you're on a forecourt — the Morrisons, the Asda or anywhere else. Your own driveway in Fulwell is where it stays.
Already run? Stop when it's safe, then turn off. The next junction means where to leave if you're on the A194(M), under 10 miles from Fulwell. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Sunderland, under 3 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Fulwell.
What happens when our technicians get there around Fulwell
Outside Seaburn Dene Primary School, near Fulwell Community Library or on your own drive: wherever your car has stopped, our engineers come to it. What liquid went in, the amount, and if it ran: we ask since the replies set both work and price. That price comes over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
Then your tank is drained and your system rinsed thoroughly. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. We don't leave until it has been started and is running properly.
Unrun cars mostly need a half-hour job after arrival. The equipment is safe on a live filling station, and hushed enough for a driveway late at night. Nothing upfront; you settle up that day. At the end, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Fulwell itself
Fulwell is a suburban area located on the coast of Tyne and Wear, situated near the city of Sunderland and close to nearby places such as Seaburn and Roker. Fulwell sits at an elevation of 23 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation in the area. Fulwell is home to a population of approximately 7473 residents, who enjoy the area's coastal setting and proximity to local amenities. Fulwell is also within easy reach of the city of Sunderland, being just 2.1 miles away.
AdBlue drains around Fulwell and across Tyne and Wear
Fulwell is a residential suburb, and the vans that cover it also work the towns around it, Roker and High Southwick among them, across the SR postcode area. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting SR6 8.
Shifting the car isn't needed. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Fulwell Quarry Playing Fields, a side street close to Fulwell Windmill visitor centre: we drain the vehicle where it stands. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Fulwell Acoustic Mirror, ring and ask rather than guessing.
For Fulwell drivers, the short version
First, the cap; then, the tip. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it where it is, wherever in Tyne and Wear: switch the car off then call 0333 366 0103.