Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Goats
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and the ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. Normally, when the motor has not turned, it is drained and fully cleaned where your car sits around Goats. The rest of this page covers why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't — handy if you are reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Not one fluid but two: that's what many newer diesels near Goats and Jubilee run, with diesel for your engine. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust stream to clean it.
Each tank has its own filler. Other motors put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty more have both together behind one flap. Diesel gets filled at each forecourt visit, week in, week out. The AdBlue side is filled far less frequently, normally from a bottle, and normally by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank take place in Goats?
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
Haste comes from the warning. The vehicle tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a drive off Railway View, or on the way home in the car park at The Pineapple.
Then the car is new. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand gets to 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 pour once it has started. It takes a few seconds, be it in Wood End or right in the heart of Goats.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Lower Rushcroft or a forecourt around Goats, check these. They take a few seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally isn't. Read it instead of going by position.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside your fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Check for it.
- Cannot find it next to the diesel filler? Then check below the bonnet or inside the boot — the owner's manual will say which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Rochdale? Check with the person who drove the vehicle last before leaving, rather than once the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
The day the light goes on, anywhere around Greater Manchester, use this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Bridge Street, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park then switch off properly.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- The two under one flap? Then confirm the cap on the diesel side is still shut before raising the bottle.
- Stop when that tank fills or the bottle is empty; until then, pour slowly through the own spout.
- Close the cap, and look again — confirm your diesel filler remained shut the whole time. After that, start the vehicle.
Spot at stage two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? So stop right there. Step five is out.
Goats: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Short list, then. Top of that: the motor remains off. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch the car on. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is pulled from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
Ask the attendants to help roll the car clear of the pump if you are on a forecourt — the Shell, the Esso or somewhere else. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway around Goats.
Already started? Pull over when it is safe, then switch off. Come off the M62 — under 3 miles out of Goats — at the next junction. Mileage matters — a quick hop across Goats is a smaller job than heading under 10 miles towards Manchester — so say roughly how far it went.
Goats: what happens when our engineers get there
We come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Rushcroft Primary School, close to St James or on your own driveway. The answers determine this work and the price, so we ask what got in, about how much, and if it's run. The price is given on the call, before any van leaves.
Then the tank is cleared and the system purged thoroughly. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and none of that clears away by itself. That is why it matters more. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. After that our technicians fire it up and make sure it runs correctly before leaving.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour once our technicians get there, as long as your motor has not run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a live forecourt and quiet after dark outside a house. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork an insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Goats, for a moment
Goats is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Greater Manchester, with an elevation of 174 metres and a mix of semi-detached housing. Goats lies approximately 9.8 miles from Manchester and 165.6 miles from London, near neighbouring areas such as Wood End and Small Brook. Goats forms part of the wider residential landscape around Manchester, with its population of around 4590 people. Goats is characterized by its semi-detached homes and proximity to the river.
AdBlue drains about Goats, and Greater Manchester beyond
Small Brook and Crompton Fold are among the towns around Goats, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, over OL postcodes. Quote a postcode beginning OL2 8, and the van gets there fastest.
The car stays put. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street near St Saviour's Mission Church, a lay-by on the way to Dunwood Park, a driveway. Tricky to explain, like the back of Shore Edge Methodist Church? By a border? Asking beats assuming, and so phone.
In short, for Goats drivers
Before you tip, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere across Greater Manchester, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless — so leave the car off and ring 0333 366 0103.