Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Greenside: Why It Happens
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and your ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103. Around Greenside, finding it before the engine turns normally means draining and a thorough flush on the spot. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page covers the why it occurs and the how to prevent it altogether.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Diesel goes to the engine — but many modern diesels driven about Greenside and Littlemoss hold a second fluid too. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, and there spraying cleans the fumes.
Every tank has a filler of its own. Many of cars share a single flap for the two, whereas some move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Filling your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on constantly. Rarely filled, AdBlue usually comes out of a bottle, tipped by someone who must stop and think what filler it needs. The mistake lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place around Greenside
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
Hurry follows from the warning. The vehicle warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a driveway off Shakespeare Road, or heading home in the car park at Pig on the Wall.
Then your car is unfamiliar. 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.
Lastly, the spout fits: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in as readily, and after the pour starts, nothing halts it. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Greenside or out in Droylsden.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Clayton or a forecourt around Greenside, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- Check inside your fuel flap: plenty of cars have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows which it is when your filler isn't next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at Fairfield, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
On the day the light appears — anywhere it is around Greater Manchester — a simple routine to follow.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Tennyson Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where both sit under a flap, confirm it is closed before lifting the bottle.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap, then check again — making sure the diesel filler remained closed the whole time. Only then, start the car.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Do not go on to step five.
Greenside: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Short order, then. Top of it: the engine stays unstarted. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch it on. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is pulled from.
Ask the attendants to help roll your car clear of the petrol pump if you're on a forecourt — the Tesco, the BP or anywhere else. Your own drive around Greenside is the place it should stay.
Where your motor has been run by now, stop somewhere safe and switch the vehicle off. The next exit is where to come off if you're on the M60, under 3 miles from Greenside. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Manchester, under 5 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Greenside.
Our arrival around Greenside, and what occurs next
Outside Greenside Primary School, near St Stephen's Roman Catholic Church or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, our technicians come to it. Both the work and the price rest on three answers — what liquid, what amount, and if it has run — so our engineers ask. That quote is given over the phone, before any van leaves.
The system is then rinsed thoroughly, after the tank is drained. 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 doesn't wash out on its own. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. The engine is fired up next and tested to be sure it runs properly, all before our engineers go.
Using pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where the motor hasn't run take roughly half an hour after our engineers arrive. Nothing upfront; you settle up on the day. At the end, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Greenside itself
Greenside is a suburban area in Greater Manchester, situated near the River Medlock and close to the city of Manchester. Greenside has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are predominant, and its riverside setting provides a distinctive character. Greenside is located near several other suburban areas, including Droylsden and Openshaw, and is about 3.9 miles from Manchester city centre.
Greenside and Greater Manchester: AdBlue drains across the area
Bottom of Woodhouses and Openshaw are among the places around Greenside, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, over M postcodes. Give a postcode that starts M43 7, and the van arrives fastest.
No need to shift your car. Anywhere it stands — near Droylsden Park Crown Green Bowls Club, on a layby heading to Sunnybank Park, at home — that's where it is drained. Tricky to explain, like the back of St Martin? Close to a border? Asking beats assuming, so phone.
In short, for Greenside people
Before you tip, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave the car off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it waits, anywhere around Greater Manchester.