Why It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Gleadless
Pause reading a minute when your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Around Gleadless, catching it before your motor turns usually leaves a drain and a full flush where it stands. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it does not.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Plenty of modern diesels in Hurl Field, as well as Gleadless, carry on two liquids; the engine gets just your diesel. The exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the gas to clean it, from its own tank.
Each tank comes with a filler of its own. Many of vehicles have a single flap for the two, while some put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Topping up the diesel side at the petrol pump happens constantly. Seldom topped up, AdBlue normally goes in out of a bottle, tipped by a driver who must stop and think which filler it needs. Mistakes happen in that gap between them.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Gleadless: how it occurs
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Gleadless Common before work, or in the car park at The New Inn on the way home.
New-to-you motors are second, too. Rentals, new motors and company motors place their fillers differently, and habit reaches for the cap it 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, so nothing stops the tip once it has started. Whether it occurs in Common Side or the middle of Gleadless, it is the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Charnock Hall or a forecourt around Gleadless.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- Look inside your fuel flap: plenty of motors have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows which it is if your filler isn't next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- 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 at Darnall.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
Wherever in South Yorkshire the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Crispin Gardens, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park and switch off properly.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, perhaps, yet it does the trick.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the car: close the cap, check again, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Don't go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Gleadless?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your engine. The fuel pump runs on many diesels the moment your ignition goes on — so leave it off. Thinning it with more diesel fails, since AdBlue sinks to the bottom instead of mixing — and that's where your fuel is pulled from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it's the Esso or the Asda, ask the attendants to help roll your car away from the petrol pump. Your own driveway around Gleadless is the place it stays.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. On the M1, under 5 miles from Gleadless, that means the next junction. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Gleadless is smaller a job than a trip of under 3 miles to Sheffield, and so say.
Gleadless: what happens when we get there
Our technicians come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Gleadless Primary School, near Gleadless United Reformed Church or on your own drive. The answers decide the work and our quote, and so our engineers ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it's run. During the phone call itself, you are told our quote — ahead of dispatch.
Your system is then purged thoroughly, after that tank is cleared. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and none of it washes away by itself. That is why it counts more. After your filter has been flushed — or replaced, where needed — clean diesel is added, and finally the car gets tested. Before we go, our engineers start it and confirm that it is running properly.
Using pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the motor hasn't run take about half an hour once we are there. Nothing upfront; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. It is worth looking at your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Gleadless
Gleadless is a suburban area in South Yorkshire, situated near the River Sheaf and close to the city of Sheffield. Gleadless sits at an elevation of around 180 metres, with a mix of semi-detached housing and local amenities. Gleadless is located near other residential areas, including Common Side and Intake, and is approximately 2.8 miles from Sheffield city centre. Gleadless has a population of around 7704 people, according to recent estimates.
AdBlue drains in Gleadless and across South Yorkshire
Gleadless is a residential suburb, and our vans that cover it also work the places around it, Gleadless Townend and Intake among them, across the S postcode area. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting S12 2.
The vehicle stays where it is. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street close to Gleadless War Memorial, a lay-by on the way to Hollinsend Park, a drive. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Christ Church.
Gleadless people: the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it where it stands, wherever across South Yorkshire: keep it off and phone 0333 366 0103.