Grasswell: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then put this page down for now, keep the ignition and engine off, then phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Grasswell. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Many modern diesels on the roads round Grasswell and Houghton-le-Spring carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Different tanks, separate fillers. Some cars put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others place the two side by side behind one flap. Filling your diesel side at the pump happens constantly. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less regularly. It is in the gap that the mistake lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank happens around Grasswell
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
On a driveway off Grasswell Terrace before work, or in the car park outside The Sun heading home: that is where the rushed top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low your car warns you, and once it's gone, limp mode kicks in.
Unfamiliar motors come second, too. Hire cars, new vehicles and company vehicles place their fillers in new places, and the hand goes for the cap it used on the old one.
Lastly, the bottle goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in just as easily, and once the pour starts, nothing stops it. Sunniside or the middle of Grasswell: it is the same few seconds either way.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Look at these first, at a forecourt in Grasswell or a drive out in Sedgeletch. A few seconds, that's all.
- Position can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue caps are often blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally don't.
- On many motors, size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Lift the filler flap and check for a label — plenty of vehicles show what belongs in each filler just there.
- The handbook says where it is when your filler isn't next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Ask 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 outside Chester-Le-Street.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
On the day the light appears — wherever it is around Tyne and Wear — a routine to use.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Chester Street.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- The two behind one flap? So confirm the lid on your diesel filler is still closed before lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Before starting your car, close the cap and look again that your diesel cap was never came off.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Skip step five altogether.
Grasswell: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Short order, then. First: the motor remains off. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch the vehicle on. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
On a forecourt — JET, Tesco or any other — the attendants will normally help push the car clear, when you ask. If you are on your own driveway around Grasswell, leave the vehicle where it sits.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your engine has already run. On the A1(M), under 3 miles from Grasswell, that means the next junction. Distance matters — a quick hop across Grasswell is a smaller job than heading under 10 miles to Sunderland — so tell us roughly how far it went.
Grasswell: what takes place when we turn up
Wherever the car has stopped, whether by Newbottle Primary Academy, near Kingdom Hall or on your own drive, our van travels to it. The replies settle this work and the quote, and so our engineers ask what got in, roughly how much, and if it's run. You get that quote by phone, before anybody heads out.
Next: a drain, then a full flush of the entire system. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and none of that clears out by itself. That is why it counts more. After your filter has been flushed — or replaced, if needed — clean diesel is added, and finally the car is tested. Next our engineers fire it up and make sure it runs smoothly before leaving.
Unstarted vehicles mostly need a half-hour job from arrival. The kit is fine on a live forecourt, and hushed enough for a residential street late at night. The insurer usually wants the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Grasswell itself
Grasswell is a suburban area located inland in Tyne and Wear, with an elevation of 66 metres above sea level. Grasswell sits approximately 5 miles west of Sunderland and is surrounded by nearby places such as Sunniside, Burnside, and Newbottle. Grasswell has a population of around 4222 people and is characterised by predominantly semi-detached housing. Grasswell is situated in the North East region of England, about 238 miles north of London.
AdBlue drains in Grasswell and across Tyne and Wear
Throughout DH postcodes, our vans covering Grasswell — a residential suburb — work the surrounding spots too, Newbottle and Burnside among them. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting DH4 4.
Moving your car is not necessary. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near St. Matthew's Church & Community Hall, a lay-by on the way to Russell Foster 7 Pitches, a driveway. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Houghton-le-Spring Library And Learning Centre, ring and ask rather than assuming.
For Grasswell drivers, the short version
Always, the cap; after that, the pour. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway, leave the vehicle off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere around Tyne and Wear.