Why It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Grange-over-Sands
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then put this page aside a moment, keep your ignition and motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, done just where the vehicle sits in Grange-over-Sands, is usually all it takes if caught before the engine runs. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page covers the why it takes place and the how to avoid it for good.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Diesel goes to the engine — but plenty of current diesels driven round Grange-over-Sands and Allithwaite carry a second fluid too. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust gas and cleans it.
Each tank has its own filler. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Topping up the diesel side at the pump happens all the time. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less frequently. It's in that gap that the slip happens.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Grange-over-Sands: how it happens
It is seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, your vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Grange Fell Road before work, or in the car park at Keg & Kitchen on the way home.
Then the car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, after begun, carries on. Grange Fell or the middle of Grange-over-Sands: it is the same few seconds in both.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Be it a Grange-over-Sands forecourt or a drive out in Hampsfield, spend a few seconds over these before anything is poured in.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps are often blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually don't.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many motors say there which fuel goes where.
- Can't see it beside the diesel inlet? Then check beneath the bonnet or inside the boot — the owner's manual says where.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park outside the nearest station? Ask the person who drove the vehicle last before leaving, rather than once the light goes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
On the day the light comes on — anywhere you are across Cumbria — a routine to follow.
- Turn off after you park — level ground, engine off, and not in a rush beside Kents Bank Road on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" out loud as unscrewing it. It seems daft. It does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Stop once that tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; until then, tip slowly through its built-in spout.
- Close the cap, then check once more — confirm your diesel filler remained closed the whole time. After that, start the vehicle.
Find at the second or third stage that the bottle went into the diesel filler? That's where you stop. Step five stays off limits.
Grange-over-Sands: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your motor. The fuel pump runs on many diesels the moment your ignition goes on — and so leave it off. Topping up with diesel will not weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of the tank, just where fuel is taken from.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it is the BP or the another forecourt nearby, ask the staff to help roll the car away from the pump. If you're on your own driveway around Grange-over-Sands, leave it where it is.
Already started? Stop when it is sensible, then switch off. Grange-over-Sands lies under 10 miles from the M6; there, take the first junction. A short hop across Grange-over-Sands is a smaller job than a run towards Lancaster, under 15 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
When we arrive around Grange-over-Sands, what happens?
The van reaches the car wherever it has come to rest — your own driveway, near Grange-over-Sands Library, or outside Grange CofE Primary School. The answers decide the work and our price, so our engineers ask what went in, roughly how much, and if it has run. During the phone call itself, you are told our price — ahead of dispatch.
Emptying your tank comes next, then a thorough flush of the system. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own. Once the fuel filter is flushed — or renewed, if required — clean diesel goes in, and finally your vehicle is tested. The engine is started next and checked to confirm it runs properly, all before we leave.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour once our engineers get there, provided your engine has not run — and the pumps our engineers use are safe on a busy forecourt yet quiet after dark outside a house. No money in advance; you settle up on the day. At the end, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Grange-over-Sands and where it is
Grange-over-Sands is a coastal town in Cumbria, situated on the northwestern coast of England, with Grange-over-Sands being a popular destination for those seeking a seaside resort. Grange-over-Sands has a population of approximately 3164 residents, with Grange-over-Sands predominantly consisting of detached housing. Grange-over-Sands is surrounded by nearby places such as Grange Fell and Eden Mount, with Grange-over-Sands also being close to Kents Bank.
AdBlue drains across Cumbria, Grange-over-Sands included
Eden Mount and Kents Bank are among the towns around Grange-over-Sands, a coastal town, that the same teams cover, throughout LA postcodes. Quote a postcode beginning LA11 6, and our van gets there quickest.
Your car does not need to shift. Draining happens on the spot, be it a drive, a street near St. Paul's Church, or a lay-by towards Normandy Gardens. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Hardcragg Hall.
For Grange-over-Sands people, the short version
First, the cap; then, the tip. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere around Cumbria, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same — and so leave it off then ring 0333 366 0103.