How It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Grangefield
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case put this page aside a moment, keep the ignition and engine off, then phone 0333 366 0103. Usually, when your motor hasn't turned, it is emptied and fully rinsed where your car is in Grangefield. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page explains the reasons it happens and the ways to avoid it for good.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Diesel goes to your motor — yet plenty of newer diesels seen round Grangefield and Newtown carry a second liquid as well. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, and there spraying cleans the gas.
Each tank comes with one filler of its own. Many of cars have a single flap for the two, while others move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Topping up your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less commonly, usually from a bottle, and usually by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place around Grangefield
Carelessness seldom causes it. What does is three things coming up at once.
Haste follows from the warning. The vehicle warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a drive off Spennithorne Road, or on the way home in the car park at The Senator's.
Then the car is new. A hire car, a new car 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.
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. Stockton Grange or the middle of Grangefield: it is the same few seconds either way.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A few seconds is all these take — so check them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Primrose Hill or a forecourt in Grangefield.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Trust the cap, not its position.
- Plenty of cars give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- Cannot see it next to the diesel filler? In that case check below the bonnet or inside your boot — the owner's manual says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park at Stockton? Ask the person who drove the vehicle last before you set off, rather than once the light goes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Durham that is.
- Stop on level, engine off, with time to spare — never rushing on the side of Grasmere Road.
- 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 diesel cap remains on. When the two share a flap, make sure it is closed before lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, then look again — confirm your diesel cap stayed shut throughout. Only then, start the car.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Do not go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Grangefield already?
Don't start your motor: that is how the short order of things starts. Keep the ignition off too, because on plenty of diesels switching it on by itself starts the pump. Thinning it with more diesel won't work, since AdBlue settles to the bottom rather than blending — and that's where the fuel is sucked from.
The attendants at Sainsbury's, Esso or any forecourt will usually lend a hand to push the car clear if you ask. Your own drive in Grangefield is the place it should stay.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. On the A1(M), under 10 miles from Grangefield, that means the next junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Durham, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Grangefield.
Our arrival in Grangefield, and what happens next
Our van reaches the vehicle anywhere it has come to rest — your own drive, near St Paul's Newtown - A Church of England and Methodist Church Partnership, or by St Bede's Catholic Academy. Those answers settle the work and our quote, and so our engineers ask what got in, roughly how much, and if it's run. On the call itself, you are told the quote — ahead of dispatch.
After that: draining, then a thorough flush of the whole system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that counts more here than with petrol. A test comes last: before that, clean diesel is added, and the fuel filter is cleaned or changed if necessary. We don't go until it has been started and is running smoothly.
If the motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents your insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. While we travel, have a look at your insurance documents; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Grangefield
Grangefield is a suburban area located on the riverside in County Durham, with an elevation of 18 metres above sea level. Grangefield sits near the cities of Durham and Stockton-on-Tees, with nearby places including Stockton Grange, Newham Grange, and Oxbridge. Grangefield has a population of approximately 4473 residents, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Grangefield is situated in the North East region of England, about 217 miles north of London.
AdBlue drains around Grangefield and across Durham
Newham Grange and Oxbridge are among the towns around Grangefield, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, over TS postcodes. A postcode starting TS18 4 gets the van to you fastest.
The car does not need to move. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street close to Grangefield Community Centre, a lay-by on the way to Stockton Cricket Club, a driveway. Awkward to explain, like the back of Stockton Town Football Club? Close to a border? Asking is better than guessing, and so ring.
Grangefield people: the short version
Read the cap before you tip. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Keep the car off then phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, throughout Durham.