How It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Galbally
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and the ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Galbally. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Many current diesels on the roads around Galbally and Donaghmore carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. Your exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the gas to fresh them, from a separate tank.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the layout on many vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in your boot instead. At the pump, your diesel side gets filled constantly. Much less frequently, the AdBlue side is filled — normally from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank happens around Galbally
It's seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Haste comes from the warning. Your car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a driveway off Wallace Cottages, or heading home in the car park at the pub in the village.
The old car's filler is where the hand reaches — but a rental car, a new car or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That is a second thing: a strange car.
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. Whether it happens in Cappagh or the middle of Galbally, it is the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A few seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Killay or a forecourt in Galbally.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Go by the cap, not its position.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on many cars, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Check for it.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler sits if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside the nearest station? Ask whoever drove the vehicle last before you set off, rather than when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
Wherever in County Tyrone the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Dunaverty Court.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, perhaps, yet it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave it on.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start the vehicle: close the cap, check again, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Spot at step two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? So stop just there. Skip stage five entirely.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Galbally?
Don't start the engine: that's where the short order of things starts. Do not switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is sucked from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
At a forecourt — the nearest petrol station, another forecourt nearby or another — the staff will normally help push your car away, when you ask. On your own drive around Galbally? So the car remains put.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Leave the M77 — over 50 miles out of Galbally — at the first junction. About how far did it go? Crossing Galbally is less work than a trip of under 25 miles to Armagh, and so say.
When we get there in Galbally, what takes place?
Wherever the car has stopped, whether outside the local primary school, beside the centre or at home, the van comes to it. Our technicians ask what went in, about how much, and whether it's run, because the replies settle this work and the price. No one heads out until you've heard the quote by phone.
The system is then flushed thoroughly, once your tank is emptied. More than with petrol, it counts here: crystals form, certain metals corrode, and none of it washes out on its own, no matter how long it sits. A test comes last: before that, clean diesel goes in, and your filter is flushed or replaced if necessary. Your engine is fired up next and tested to confirm it runs correctly, all before our technicians go.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour after our engineers get there, provided your motor hasn't run — and the pumps our technicians use are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet after dark outside a house. No money in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. Misfuelling cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Galbally and where it is
Galbally is a small locality in County Tyrone, situated inland at an elevation of 123 metres, and is located near the cities of Armagh and Dungannon. Galbally is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock and is close to nearby places such as Cappagh, Shanmaghery, and Castlecaulfield. Galbally has a population of around 721 people and is approximately 15.6 miles from Armagh. Galbally sits in a rural area with rolling hills and countryside views.
AdBlue drains about Galbally, and County Tyrone beyond
Galbally is a small village, and the teams that cover it also work the towns around it, Shanmaghery and Castlecaulfield among them, across the BT postcode area. Quote a postcode beginning BT70 3, and the van arrives fastest.
The car doesn't need to move. Wherever it sits — near a street just off the centre, in a layby heading to the green space at the edge of the village, on a drive — that is where it gets cleared. Assuming won't help at the back of the far end of the built-up part, on a boundary, or anywhere hard to pin down; ring and check.
Galbally motorists: the short version
Tip nothing until you have read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere across County Tyrone, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless — and so leave it off and ring 0333 366 0103.