Hallgarth: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Leave your motor and ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Caught before your motor runs, it is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Hallgarth. Reading before the event? Then the rest covers how it comes about and what to prevent it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
No single liquid but two: that's what many newer diesels near Hallgarth and Plumgarths run, with diesel for the motor. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust stream to clean it.
There's a filler on every tank. Plenty of vehicles share a single flap for both, whereas others put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Topping up the diesel side at the pump goes on all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less commonly, usually from a bottle, and usually by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake grows in that gap between them.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank happens in Hallgarth
Carelessness seldom explains 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 altogether, the vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Acre Moss Lane before work, or in the car park outside Oddfellows Arms on the way home.
New-to-you cars come second, too. Rentals, new motors and company vehicles put their fillers in new places, and habit goes for the cap used on the old one.
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. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Hallgarth or out in Kentrigg.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Check these before pouring, at a forecourt in Hallgarth or a drive over in Burneside. A few seconds, that's all.
- Check the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue ones are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally are not.
- Plenty of cars fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Lift the flap and look for a label — many vehicles show which belongs in each filler right there.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by your diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before knows. Ask as you pick up a rental or fleet car — at Kendal's car park, say — not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
Anywhere around Cumbria the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Turn off once parked — level ground, engine off, and never in a rush beside High Sparrowmire at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Finish when that tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; before that, tip slowly through its own spout.
- Close the cap, and look again — making sure your diesel filler remained closed the whole time. Only then, start the vehicle.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Don't go on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Hallgarth already?
The short order of things, starting with no starting the motor. Leave your ignition off as well, because on many diesels switching it on alone runs the fuel pump. Thinning it with extra diesel fails, since AdBlue sinks to the base rather than blending — and that is where your fuel is sucked from.
The staff at Sainsbury's, Texaco or any forecourt will usually help to push your car away if you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway in Hallgarth.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your engine has already run. The next junction means the place to come off when you're on the M6, under 10 miles from Hallgarth. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Lancaster, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Hallgarth.
What occurs when our engineers turn up in Hallgarth
Outside St Thomas's CofE Primary School, close to Hallgarth Community Centre or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, our engineers come to it. Those answers settle the work and our price, so our technicians ask what went in, about how much, and whether it has run. That price is given over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
Next: draining, then a full flush of the whole system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and none of that washes away unaided. Hence it counts more. A test is at the end: before that, clean diesel goes in, and the filter is flushed or changed if necessary. The motor is fired up next and tested to confirm it runs correctly, all before we leave.
If your engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Before we get there, have a look at your policy; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Hallgarth
Hallgarth is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Cumbria, with a mix of semi-detached housing and other residential properties. Hallgarth sits at an elevation of 59 metres, near the towns of Kendal and Lancaster, and is part of the wider North West region. Hallgarth is located close to nearby places such as Kentrigg and Mintsfeet, and is approximately 224 miles from London. Hallgarth has a population of around 3331 people, living in a variety of housing types, predominantly semi-detached homes.
AdBlue drains around Hallgarth, and Cumbria beyond
Mintsfeet and Kendal are among the towns around Hallgarth, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, throughout LA postcodes. A postcode starting LA9 5 gets our van to you fastest.
The vehicle remains put. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street close to Stricklandgate Methodist Church, a lay-by on the way to Kendal Green, a driveway. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of St Thomas's Church Hall, ring and ask rather than assuming.
Hallgarth people: the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it wherever it stands, anywhere in Cumbria: switch it off and ring 0333 366 0103.