Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Gilesgate
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and your ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Gilesgate. Nothing happened yet? Below, the rest of the page explains the reasons it takes place and the how to prevent it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel feeds your motor — but many newer diesels seen round Gilesgate and West Sherburn carry a second liquid as well. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust gas to clean it.
There's a filler on every tank. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the arrangement on a lot of cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. Diesel goes in on each filling station visit, again and again. Far less often, the AdBlue side gets topped up — mostly from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. The mistake lives in that gap.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Gilesgate: how it takes place
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
Hurry comes from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a driveway off Back Wynyard Grove, or on the way home in the car park outside Queen's Head.
Then the vehicle is new. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the tip once it has started. Gilesgate Moor or the middle of Gilesgate: it takes the same few seconds in both.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A couple of seconds is all these take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a drive in Durham or a forecourt around Gilesgate.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually isn't. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside the fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Check for it.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by the diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Durham? Ask whoever drove the car last before you set off, rather than when the light goes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
For the day the light comes on — anywhere you are around Durham — a routine to follow.
- Not in a rush on the side of Webster House, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park and switch off properly.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" aloud while unscrewing it. It seems daft. It works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the vehicle on.
- Stop once that tank fills or the bottle runs dry; before that, tip gently through its own spout.
- Only after that, start the car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Stage five is off limits.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Gilesgate?
Brief order, then. First: your motor remains unstarted. Don't switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Diluting it with extra diesel fails, since AdBlue settles to the bottom rather than blending — and that's where the fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — Esso, Tesco or another — the staff will normally help roll the car clear, if you ask. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive in Gilesgate.
Where your engine has run already, pull over safely then switch it off. Leave the A1(M) — under a mile out of Gilesgate — at the next exit. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Gilesgate is less work than a run of under 3 miles towards Durham, and so say.
Gilesgate: what takes place when our technicians turn up
By Laurel Avenue Community Primary School, close to Apostolic Lighthouse Church of Durham or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, our technicians come to it. Which fluid was put in, the quantity, and if it ran: our engineers ask because the replies decide both work and quote. You hear that price by phone, before anyone sets off.
The system is then rinsed thoroughly, after your tank is cleared. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and neither washes away by itself. That is why it matters more. Testing is at the end: before that, fresh diesel is added, and your filter is cleaned or replaced if necessary. Your engine is started next and tested to confirm it runs properly, all before our engineers head off.
Using pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the engine hasn't run take about half an hour after we arrive. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Gilesgate itself
Gilesgate is a suburban area located on the banks of the River Wear in County Durham, England, with Gilesgate sitting approximately 90 metres above sea level. Gilesgate is situated near the city of Durham, being only 1.1 miles away, and Gilesgate is close to other nearby places such as Gilesgate Moor and Old Durham. Gilesgate has a population of around 5715 people and Gilesgate is characterised by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock.
AdBlue drains around Gilesgate, and Durham beyond
Throughout DH postcodes, the teams that cover Gilesgate — a residential suburb — work the surrounding spots too, The Sands and Old Durham included. Quickest of all: give a DH1 2 postcode to the van.
Moving the car is not necessary. Wherever it stands — beside Gilesgate Welfare and Community Association, in a layby en route to Cross Fields, on a drive — that's where it is drained. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Daisy Edis.
Gilesgate people: the short version
Read the cap before you pour. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Leave the car switched off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, across Durham.