Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Great Cliff: Why It Happens
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and the ignition off and call 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, done just where the car sits around Great Cliff, is normally all it needs if caught before your motor runs. Here before the event? Then what follows explains how it comes about and how to prevent it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Many newer diesels around Painthorpe, like those in Great Cliff, run on two liquids; the engine gets only your diesel. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Some motors put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty more place the two together behind one flap. Diesel goes in at every filling station call-out, week in, week out. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less often. The slip lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank occur in Great Cliff?
Carelessness seldom causes it. Instead is three things coming up at once.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from the vehicle, and letting it run dry means limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Milton Close, perhaps at The British Oak on the way home after work.
Next, your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old car — because a hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
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 tip after it has started. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Great Cliff or out in Calder Grove.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Durkar or a forecourt in Great Cliff, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Check the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually are not.
- Many vehicles fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Look for it.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by your diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Sandal & Agbrigg? Check with whoever drove the car last before you set off, rather than when the light goes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
On the day the warning appears — wherever it is across West Yorkshire — a simple routine to use.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Primrose Lane.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, and check once more — confirm the diesel cap stayed shut throughout. Only then, start your car.
Find at stage two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? So stop just there. Skip step five altogether.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Great Cliff?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the motor. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch it on. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
Ask the attendants to help roll your car clear of the pump if you are at a forecourt — the BP, the Shell or anywhere else. Your own drive around Great Cliff is where it stays.
When your engine has run by now, stop somewhere safe and switch it off. Great Cliff lies under a mile from the M1; on it, take the next exit. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Wakefield, under 5 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Great Cliff.
Great Cliff: what takes place when our engineers get there
The van comes to the car wherever it stopped — your own drive, near Crigglestone Community Centre, or by Crigglestone Mackie Hill Junior and Infant School. Both the work and our quote depend on three answers — what liquid, which quantity, and if it has run — so our technicians ask. During the call itself, you hear the quote — ahead of anything else.
The system is then purged thoroughly, after the tank is drained. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and none of it clears out unaided. That is why it counts more. The filter cleaned or, if it must be, replaced; clean diesel in; then a test of the vehicle. Your engine is fired up next and tested to confirm it runs smoothly, all before we head off.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour after our technicians get there, as long as your engine hasn't run — and the pumps our technicians use are fine on a live forecourt yet quiet after dark outside a house. The insurer usually wants an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. While we travel, take a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Great Cliff itself
Great Cliff is a locality situated on the riverside in West Yorkshire, with a relatively low elevation of 54 metres. Great Cliff lies close to the city of Wakefield, approximately 3.2 miles away, and is near other local places such as Calder Grove and Crigglestone. Great Cliff has a population of around 670 people and predominantly features detached housing. Great Cliff is located in a region that is about 159 miles north of London.
AdBlue drains round Great Cliff, and West Yorkshire beyond
As a small village, Great Cliff has the same vans as surrounding places — Crigglestone, Horbury Junction — right through WF postcodes and the surrounding area around them. A postcode starting WF4 3 gets our van to you fastest.
The car doesn't need to move. Anywhere it stands — beside Crigglestone Methodist Church, on a lay-by heading to Brice Hill Plantation, on a drive — that is where it gets drained. Tricky to pin down, like the back of Crigglestone Village Institute? By a county line? Checking is better than guessing, so phone.
In short, for Great Cliff motorists
Before you pour, read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Keep the vehicle switched off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, across West Yorkshire.