AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Greencroft: How It Happens and How to Prevent It
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case put this page aside for now, leave your ignition and engine off, and phone 0333 366 0103. In Greencroft, catching it before the engine turns normally means a drain and a full flush on the spot. Here before the event? Then the rest explains why it comes about and what to prevent it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel feeds the motor — but many current diesels driven around Greencroft and West Kyo hold another fluid as well. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, where spraying cleans the gas.
Each tank comes with a filler of its own. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the layout on a lot of motors. On others, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in the boot instead. Filling your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less regularly. It is in that gap that the error happens.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen in Greencroft?
Carelessness rarely causes it. Instead is three things lining up at once.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out completely, the vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Loud View Terrace before work, or in the car park outside Annfield Plain Cricket Club on the way home.
Then the car is strange. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Nothing stops the pour once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Annfield Plain or the heart of Greencroft: it is the same few seconds in both.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
A couple of seconds is all these take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a drive in Maiden Law or a forecourt around Greencroft.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue ones are often blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally don't.
- Plenty of cars give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Look inside the fuel flap: many cars carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- Cannot see it beside your diesel filler? In that case look beneath the bonnet or inside the boot — the owner's manual will say which.
- Check with 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 Chester-Le-Street.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your 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 — not rushing on the side of Chirnside Terrace.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap works — once you have located the filler and read the cap.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Only then, start your car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Don't go on to stage five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Greencroft?
Short list, then. First: the engine remains unstarted. Leave the ignition off as well, since on many diesels switching it on by itself runs your fuel pump. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is drawn from.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it's the Esso or the JET, ask the staff to help push the vehicle clear of the pump. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway around Greencroft.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your motor has already run. On the A1(M), under 10 miles from Greencroft, that means the next exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Durham, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Greencroft.
What happens when our engineers turn up in Greencroft
Outside Catchgate Primary School, close to Annfield Plain Commnity Centre or on your own drive: wherever your car has stopped, our technicians come to it. Our technicians ask what was put in, about how much, and if it's run, since those replies decide the work and our quote. You get that quote by phone, before anybody heads out.
Draining that tank comes next, then a thorough flush of your system. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own. Filter cleaned or, if needed, replaced; fresh diesel in; and then a check of the vehicle. Before we go, our engineers start the engine and check that it's running correctly.
If the motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It's worth checking your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Greencroft, for a moment
Greencroft is a suburban area situated inland in County Durham, approximately 8.6 miles from the city of Durham. Greencroft sits at an elevation of around 250 metres, surrounded by nearby places such as Annfield Plain, Catchgate, and Stony Heap. Greencroft has a population of around 1230 people, predominantly residing in terraced housing. Greencroft is located about 240.8 miles north of London, in the North East region of England.
Greencroft and Durham: AdBlue drains across the area
Greencroft is a residential suburb, and the vans that cover it also work the towns around it, Catchgate and Stony Heap among them, across the DH postcode area. A postcode starting DH9 8 gets our van to you fastest.
Shifting the car is not necessary. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Greencroft Heath Local Nature Reserve, a side street close to Annfield Plain Library: our engineers drain it where it is. Tricky to pin down, like the back of Methodist Church? By a county line? Checking is better than guessing, so phone.
Greencroft drivers: the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it where it is, anywhere around Durham: switch the car off and call 0333 366 0103.