AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Grotton: Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and the ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, done right where the car stands around Grotton, is usually all it takes if found before the engine runs. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it does not.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Diesel feeds your motor — yet many current diesels driven round Grotton and Springhead carry another fluid too. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There is a filler on every tank. Some motors keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others place both together behind one flap. Topping up your diesel side at the pump goes on all the time. Seldom filled, AdBlue usually comes out of a bottle, tipped by someone who must stop and think which cap it needs. That gap is where the mistake lives.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank happen in Grotton?
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
Haste comes from the warning. The vehicle tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a drive off Station Lane, or on the way home in the car park outside The White Hart.
Then, your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old motor — since a hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not.
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. Quick Edge or the middle of Grotton: it takes the same few seconds in both.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Look at these before pouring, at a forecourt around Grotton or a driveway out in Stone Breaks. A few seconds, no more.
- Position misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps are often blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally do not.
- Plenty of vehicles give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Open the filler flap and look for a label — plenty of motors mark which goes in each filler right there.
- Cannot find it beside your diesel filler? In that case check beneath the bonnet or in the boot — the handbook says which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Mossley (Manchester), ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
For the day the light comes on — anywhere it is around Greater Manchester — a routine to follow.
- Stop on level, motor off, with time in hand — not hurried on the side of Old Kiln Lane.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap works — after you've located the filler and read the cap.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before starting your car, shut the cap and check a second time that the diesel cap never came off.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Leave out step five entirely.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Grotton already?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with not starting your engine. Keep your ignition off as well, because on many diesels it alone starts your fuel pump. Thinning it with extra diesel fails, since AdBlue sinks to the base instead of blending — and that is where your fuel is sucked from.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it's the Gulf or the Shell, ask the attendants to help push the car clear of the pump. If you're on your own drive around Grotton, leave the car where it is.
When your engine has run already, stop safely and switch it off. Leave the M60 — under 5 miles out of Grotton — at the next junction. Distance matters — a quick hop across Grotton is a smaller job than driving under 10 miles to Manchester — so say about how far it went.
When our engineers get there in Grotton, what happens?
Our van reaches the car anywhere it stopped — your own driveway, beside St Agnes Church, or by St Agnes CofE Primary School. Which fluid was put in, the quantity, and if it ran: we ask because those replies decide both work and price. During the call itself, you hear the price — ahead of dispatch.
Then the tank is drained and the system flushed thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. Testing is last: before that, fresh diesel is added, and the fuel filter is cleaned or changed if necessary. Before we go, our engineers start it and check that it is running smoothly.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour after our technicians get there, as long as the engine has not run — and the pumps our engineers use are safe on a busy forecourt yet quiet after dark beside a house. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents an insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Grotton and where it is
Grotton is a suburban area in Greater Manchester, situated near the River Medlock and characterised by semi-detached housing. Grotton sits at an elevation of 211 metres, overlooking the surrounding landscape. Grotton is located near several other local areas, including Quick Edge, Top of Lane, and Lydgate, and is approximately 8.8 miles from Manchester.
AdBlue drains around Grotton, and Greater Manchester beyond
Grotton is a residential suburb, and our vans that cover it also work the places near it, Top of Lane and Lydgate among them, across the OL postcode area. A postcode starting OL4 5 gets our van to you fastest.
The car remains put. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Oldham Golf Club, a side street close to Springhead Congregational Church: our engineers drain it where it stands. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of St Anne.
The short version for Grotton drivers
Before you tip, read the cap. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it wherever it stands, wherever around Greater Manchester: switch it off then call 0333 366 0103.