Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Great Crosby: Why It Happens
Stop reading a minute if your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Around Great Crosby, finding it before your motor turns usually leaves a drain and a full flush on the spot. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the page explains the why it happens and the ways to prevent it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Many newer diesels around Crosby, as well as Great Crosby, run on two liquids; the motor gets only your diesel. The exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the gas to clean them, from its own tank.
Each tank has one filler of its own. Other cars keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others place the two side by side under one flap. The diesel side is fuelled at the pump all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less commonly, usually from a bottle, and usually by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. The slip lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs around Great Crosby
It is rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Haste follows from the warning. The vehicle tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a drive off Fairfield, or heading home in the car park at Stamps.
Unfamiliar cars come next, too. Rentals, new motors and company cars place their fillers in new places, and the hand reaches for the cap 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, and so nothing stops the pour after it has started. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Great Crosby or out in Moor Park.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Waterloo or a forecourt around Great Crosby, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually do not.
- On many cars, size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of cars say there which fuel goes where.
- Can't see it next to your diesel inlet? Then look beneath the bonnet or inside your boot — the handbook says where.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Blundellsands & Crosby.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
For the day the warning appears — wherever you are in Merseyside — a simple routine to follow.
- Pull in on level, engine off, with time to spare — never hurried on the side of Liverpool Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- Both under one flap? Then confirm the cap on the diesel side is still closed ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap, then look once more — making sure your diesel cap remained closed the whole time. Only then, start the vehicle.
Find at the second or third stage that AdBlue went in the diesel filler? That's where you stop. Stage five is off limits.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Great Crosby already?
Do not start your motor: that's how the short order of things begins. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch it on. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is drawn from.
Ask the attendants to help push the car clear of the petrol pump if you're on a forecourt — the Texaco, the Shell or anywhere else. Your own drive around Great Crosby is where it stays.
Already started? Stop once it is sensible, then switch off. Leave the M57 — under 3 miles out of Great Crosby — at the first exit. About how far did it go? Crossing Great Crosby is less work than a run of under 10 miles towards Liverpool, so say.
When our technicians arrive in Great Crosby, what occurs?
The van comes to your car wherever it has come to rest — your own drive, beside St Luke's Church, Great Crosby, or outside Great Crosby Catholic Primary School. What liquid was put in, the quantity, and if it ran: our engineers ask since those answers decide the work and quote. You hear that quote by phone, before anyone heads out.
The system is then cleaned thoroughly, after your tank is emptied. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. A test comes at the end: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and your filter is cleaned or changed if necessary. Before leaving, we start the engine and make sure that it is running properly.
Using pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your motor has not run take about half an hour once our engineers are there. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork an insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Great Crosby, for a moment
Great Crosby is a suburban area located on the coast of Merseyside, with an elevation of around 16 metres above sea level. Great Crosby sits near the larger city of Liverpool, approximately 5.8 miles away, and is close to other nearby places such as Moor Park and Waterloo Park. Great Crosby has a population of around 9025 people and is characterised by its predominant semi-detached housing stock. Great Crosby is also situated near the coastline, with Brighton le Sands being a nearby coastal area.
Great Crosby and Merseyside: AdBlue drains across the area
Waterloo Park and Brighton le Sands are among the towns around Great Crosby, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, throughout L postcodes. Quickest of all: give a L23 0 postcode to the van.
No need to shift the car. Wherever it stands — beside St Peter and St Paul's Roman Catholic Church, in a layby heading to Coronation Park, on a drive — that is where it is cleared. Assuming won't help at the back of Sefton Academy of Taekwondo, close to a boundary, or anywhere hard to pin down; phone and check.
In short, for Great Crosby drivers
Read the cap before you tip. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway, leave the car off and call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it waits, anywhere across Merseyside.