Why It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Grimesthorpe
Keep your engine and ignition off and call 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Caught before the engine runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Grimesthorpe. Reading in advance? Then what follows explains why it comes about and what to prevent it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Plenty of modern diesels around Firth Park, as well as Grimesthorpe, carry on two fluids; the motor takes 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.
Every tank comes with one filler of its own. Plenty of cars have a single flap for the two, while others put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, your diesel side gets filled all the time. The AdBlue side is topped up far less commonly, usually from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. The slip lives in that gap.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Grimesthorpe: how it takes place
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out completely, the car goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Upwell Hill before work, or in the car park at The Crown on the way home.
Unfamiliar cars come second, too. Rentals, new cars and company motors place their fillers in new places, and habit goes for the cap used on the old one.
A spouted bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, after started, carries on. It takes a few seconds, whether in Brightside or right in the centre of Grimesthorpe.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Check these before pouring, on a forecourt in Grimesthorpe or a drive over in Wincobank. A few seconds, that's all.
- Position misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually do not.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- Check inside the fuel flap: plenty of vehicles carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- 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, perhaps at the car park outside Meadowhall? Ask whoever drove it last before leaving, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
When the light comes on, anywhere across South Yorkshire, follow this routine.
- Pull in somewhere level, motor off, with time to spare — never hurried on the side of Earl Marshal Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- The diesel cap stays on. When both share a flap, confirm it's closed before the bottle comes up.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start your car, shut the cap and look a second time that your diesel cap never came off.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Skip step five entirely.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Grimesthorpe?
The short order of things, starting with not starting your motor. Do not switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the 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 the fuel is pulled from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it is the JET or the Shell, ask the staff to help push your car away from the pump. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive in Grimesthorpe.
Already started? Stop once it is safe, then switch off. On the Tinsley Viaduct, under 3 miles from Grimesthorpe, that means the next exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Sheffield, under 3 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Grimesthorpe.
Grimesthorpe: what occurs when our technicians get there
Wherever the car came to rest, whether outside Owler Brook Primary School, near Sheffield Grand Mosque or on your own drive, our van comes to it. Which liquid got in, the amount, and whether it ran: our technicians ask because those answers set both work and quote. During the call itself, you hear the quote — before anything else.
Emptying your tank comes next, then a thorough flush of the system. 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. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Next our engineers fire it up and check it runs properly before we go.
Unrun vehicles usually need a half-hour job after arrival. The kit is fine on a live filling station, and quiet enough for a residential street late at night. Your insurer usually wants an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Before we get there, take a look at your policy; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Grimesthorpe itself
Grimesthorpe is a suburban area in South Yorkshire, situated near the River Don and close to the city of Sheffield. Grimesthorpe has a mix of terraced housing and local amenities, with nearby areas including Brightside, Lower Crabtree, and Upper Crabtree. Grimesthorpe sits at an elevation of around 68 metres, approximately 2 miles from Sheffield city centre.
AdBlue drains around Grimesthorpe, and South Yorkshire beyond
Lower Crabtree and Upper Crabtree are among the places around Grimesthorpe, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, throughout S postcodes. A postcode starting S4 8 gets the van to you fastest.
Shifting the car is not needed. Anywhere it stands — near Yorkshire Muslim Academy, in a lay-by en route to Wincobank Wood, at home — that is where it is emptied. Tricky to pin down, like the back of Firvale Community Hub? Close to a border? Checking beats assuming, and so ring.
For Grimesthorpe motorists, the short version
Read the cap before you pour. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere across South Yorkshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless — and so leave it off and ring 0333 366 0103.