How It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Halton View
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case put this page down for now, leave the ignition and motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Halton View. The remainder of this page explains why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't — useful if you're reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel feeds the motor — yet plenty of modern diesels seen about Halton View and Simms Cross carry another liquid as well. Its own tank holds it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, and there a spray treats the fumes.
Each tank comes with a filler of its own. Plenty of cars have a single flap for the two, while some move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, your diesel side is topped up constantly. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less commonly. It's in that gap that the slip happens.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Halton View: how it happens
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out completely, your vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Black Denton's Place before work, or in the car park outside Mill Brow Snooker & Social Club on the way home.
Unfamiliar motors are second, too. Rentals, new motors and company motors put their fillers differently, and the hand reaches for the cap used on the old one.
No part halts the pour after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Halton View or out in Shell Green.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Whether a Halton View forecourt or a driveway out in Crow Wood, spend a couple of seconds on these before anything is poured in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally isn't. Read it instead of going by position.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Look inside your fuel flap: many motors carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- Can't find it beside your diesel inlet? In that case check below the bonnet or inside the boot — the handbook will say where.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at Widnes, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
For the day the light appears — anywhere it is across Cheshire — a simple routine to use.
- Turn off after you park — flat ground, motor off, and never in a rush beside Naylor Road at the roadside.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, perhaps, but it works.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Never carry on to stage five.
Halton View: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with not starting the engine. Keep the ignition off too, because on many diesels switching it on alone runs your pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is pulled from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
The attendants at Texaco, Morrisons or any forecourt will normally help to push the vehicle clear if asked. At home in Halton View? So the vehicle remains put.
When your engine has run by now, pull over safely then switch the car off. On the M62, under 3 miles from Halton View, that means the next junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Liverpool, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Halton View.
What takes place when we turn up around Halton View
Outside St John Fisher Catholic Primary School, close to St Ambrose Church or on your own drive: wherever your car has stopped, our engineers come to it. We ask what went in, roughly how much, and if it has run, since those answers settle this work and our price. No one heads out until you have heard our quote by phone.
After that: draining, then a full flush of the entire system. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Then our engineers start the car and confirm it runs properly before leaving.
Unrun cars usually need a half-hour visit after arrival. The equipment is safe on a live filling station, and hushed enough for a residential street after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Before we get there, take a look at your policy; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Halton View itself
Halton View is a suburban area in Cheshire, situated near the coast and approximately 11 miles from Liverpool. Halton View has a relatively low elevation of 19 metres and is characterized by predominantly terraced housing. Halton View is close to nearby places such as Shell Green, Lugsdale, and Moss Bank, and is part of the larger North West region of England.
Halton View and Cheshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Lugsdale and Moss Bank are among the places near Halton View, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, throughout WA postcodes. A postcode starting WA8 0 gets our van to you fastest.
There's no need to shift the vehicle. A drive, a lay-by on the way to The Bongs, a side street close to Trinity Church Centre: our technicians drain the vehicle where it is. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of D.W. Sports, ring and ask rather than guessing.
Halton View drivers: the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Leave the car switched off and call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, throughout Cheshire.