AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Gregson Lane: How It Occurs and How to Stop It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and the ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. Around Gregson Lane, finding it before the engine runs usually leaves a drain and a thorough flush on the spot. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
No single liquid but two: that's how many modern diesels near Gregson Lane and Higher Walton carry, with diesel for your engine. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, where spraying cleans the gas.
Every tank has a filler of its own. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the layout on many vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. Filling the diesel side at the petrol pump happens all the time. Much less regularly, the AdBlue side is filled — normally from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. It is in that gap that the error lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place around Gregson Lane
It's rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Hurry comes from the warning. The car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a drive off Alma Row, or heading home in the car park outside Gregson Lane Sports and Social Club.
Then your car is new. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Lastly, the spout goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in as readily, and after the tip begins, nothing stops it. Coupe Green or the middle of Gregson Lane: it is the same few seconds either way.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Walton Summit or a forecourt around Gregson Lane, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Check the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally are not.
- The size. On many cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on many motors. Check for it.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by the diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Bamber Bridge? Ask whoever drove the car last before leaving, rather than once the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
Anywhere around Lancashire the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Larch Gate.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. When the two share a flap, make sure it's shut before the bottle comes up.
- Stop when that tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; before that, tip gently using its built-in spout.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Skip stage five entirely.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Gregson Lane already?
Don't start the engine: that's how the short order of things starts. Do not switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Diluting it with extra diesel fails, because AdBlue settles to the base instead of blending — and that's where the fuel is drawn from.
On a forecourt — Texaco, another forecourt nearby or any other — the attendants will usually help roll the vehicle away, when you ask. At home around Gregson Lane? Then the vehicle remains put.
When your motor has been run already, stop safely and switch it off. The next exit means the place to leave if you're on the M61, under a mile from Gregson Lane. Distance counts — a quick hop across Gregson Lane makes a smaller job than heading under 5 miles towards Preston — so tell us about how far it went.
What happens when we arrive in Gregson Lane
We come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside St Joseph's Catholic Primary School, Brindle, close to Gregson Green Community Centre or on your own driveway. Our technicians ask what went in, about how much, and whether it's run, because the answers decide this work and our price. Nobody sets off until you've heard the price by phone.
Then your tank is emptied and the system cleaned thoroughly. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. Testing comes last: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and the fuel filter is flushed or changed as needed. Your engine is started next and tested to be sure it runs correctly, all before we go.
With pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your engine hasn't run need about half an hour once our technicians are there. No money in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Gregson Lane
Gregson Lane is a village in Lancashire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 54 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Gregson Lane lies close to the city of Preston, approximately 3.7 miles away, and is also near to smaller places such as Coupe Green and Coup Green. Gregson Lane has a population of around 1748 residents, who live in a relatively small and quiet community. Gregson Lane is located in the North West region of England, about 185.9 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Lancashire, Gregson Lane included
Gregson Lane is a village, and the teams that cover it also work the towns around it, Coup Green and Jack Green among them, across the PR postcode area. Quote a postcode that starts PR5 0, and the van gets there fastest.
Your car doesn't need to move. Draining takes place on the spot, be it a driveway, a road by Trinity Methodist Church, or a layby towards Gregson Lane Playing Fields. Tricky to explain, like the back of All Saints' Church? Close to a county line? Checking beats guessing, and so ring.
The short version for Gregson Lane people
Pour no AdBlue till you've read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave the car off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it waits, anywhere across Lancashire.