Gravel Hole: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Leave the motor and ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. A drain plus a full flush, done just where the car stands around Gravel Hole, is normally all it needs if caught before the motor runs. Not happened yet? Below, the rest of the page explains the reasons it takes place and the ways to prevent it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
No single liquid but two: that is what plenty of modern diesels near Gravel Hole and Buersil Head carry, with diesel for your engine. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the arrangement on a lot of vehicles. On others, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in your boot instead. The diesel side is fuelled at the petrol pump all the time. Far less regularly, the AdBlue side is filled — normally from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. That gap is where the error lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Gravel Hole: how it happens
It is rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Haste comes from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a driveway off Castleton Road, or on the way home in the car park at The Turks Head.
Then your car is new. A hire car, a new motor 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.
A spout-topped bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, once started, keeps on. Hanging Chadder or the heart of Gravel Hole: it is the same few seconds in both.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Whether a Gravel Hole forecourt or a drive out in Burnedge, spend a few seconds on these before anything goes in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally is not. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside your fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on many cars. Check for it.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by the diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Castleton, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Greater Manchester that is.
- Turn off after you park — flat ground, engine stopped, and never rushed beside Garden Terrace on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" aloud while unscrewing it. It seems daft. It works.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Stop when that tank fills or the bottle runs dry; until then, tip gently using its built-in spout.
- Close the cap, then look again — confirm the diesel cap stayed shut the whole time. After that, start the vehicle.
Discover during the second or third stage that the bottle went in the wrong filler? That's where you stop. Do not go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Gravel Hole?
The short order of things, beginning with not starting your engine. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch the car on. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is sucked from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
Ask the attendants to help push the vehicle clear of the pump if you're on a forecourt — the Texaco, the Red Rose Filling Station or anywhere else. At home in Gravel Hole? So the car remains put.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the motor has already run. The next exit means where to leave when you're on the M62, under a mile from Gravel Hole. A short hop across Gravel Hole is a smaller job than a run towards Manchester, under 10 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
Gravel Hole: what takes place when we get there
Outside Thornham St. James CofE Primary School, close to St James or on your own drive: wherever your car has stopped, we come to it. Our technicians ask what got in, roughly how much, and if it's run, since the replies decide the work and our price. On the call itself, you are told our quote — before anything else.
Then the tank is emptied and the system flushed thoroughly. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and none of it washes out unaided. That is why it matters more. Filter flushed or, where needed, swapped; fresh diesel in; then a check of the car. After that our engineers start it and make sure it runs smoothly before we leave.
Using pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your motor hasn't run need roughly half an hour after our technicians arrive. No money in advance; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. It is worth looking at your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Gravel Hole itself
Gravel Hole is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Greater Manchester, with an elevation of around 205 metres. Gravel Hole lies approximately 8.6 miles from Manchester and is part of the wider North West region. Gravel Hole is characterized by its semi-detached housing and is close to nearby places such as Hanging Chadder and Summit.
AdBlue drains round Gravel Hole, and Greater Manchester beyond
Throughout OL postcodes, our vans that cover Gravel Hole — a residential suburb — work the surrounding places too, Narrow Gate Brow and Summit among them. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting OL2 6.
Your car does not need to move. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street close to St Mary, a lay-by on the way to Dogford Park, a driveway. Assuming doesn't help at the back of War Memorial, on a border, or somewhere hard to pin down; ring and ask.
For Gravel Hole people, the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Leave the vehicle switched off and call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, across Greater Manchester.