Harton: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Keep your engine and ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Around Harton, finding it before the engine runs normally leaves draining and a thorough flush on the spot. Reading before the event? In that case what follows covers why it comes about and what to prevent it happening at all.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Plenty of newer diesels in Westoe, like those in Harton, run on two fluids; the engine gets only the diesel. Your exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the fumes to fresh them, from a separate tank.
Different tanks, separate fillers. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled on each forecourt call-out, week in, week out. Rarely topped up, AdBlue normally goes in from a bottle, tipped by someone who has to stop and think which cap to use. It's in that gap that the error happens.
Harton: how AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
Hurry comes from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a drive off Moor Lane East, or on the way home in the car park outside The Old Ship.
Then the car is strange. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Nothing stops the tip once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It takes a few seconds, be it out in Harton Nook or right in the centre of Harton.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Look at these first, at a forecourt in Harton or a driveway out in Cleadon Park. Seconds, no more.
- Check the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue caps are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally aren't.
- On plenty of motors, size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of vehicles say there 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.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at East Boldon.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
Wherever in Tyne and Wear the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Turn off after you park — flat ground, motor off, and never rushed by Lisle Road on the verge.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap works — after you've located your filler and read it.
- Both behind a single flap? Then confirm the lid on the diesel filler is still shut before lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Step five stays off limits.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Harton already?
The short order of things, beginning with no starting the motor. Don't switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Topping up with diesel will not thin it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the base of your tank, just where fuel is drawn from.
The attendants at Gulf, Murco or any forecourt will normally lend a hand to push your car clear if asked. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway in Harton.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. On the A194(M), under 5 miles from Harton, that means the next junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Sunderland, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Harton.
When our engineers turn up around Harton, what happens?
By St Gregory's Catholic Primary School, South Shields, near St Peter or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, our engineers come to it. Those replies settle the work and our price, and so our technicians ask what went in, roughly how much, and if it's run. No one heads out until you've heard the price by phone.
Then that tank is cleared and the system flushed thoroughly. With AdBlue that counts 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. Testing is last: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and the fuel filter is cleaned or replaced as needed. Before leaving, our engineers start it and confirm that it is running properly.
With pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where your engine hasn't run need roughly half an hour once we arrive. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork an insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. It is worth checking your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Harton itself
Harton is a suburban area located on the coast of Tyne and Wear, with Harton sitting at an elevation of 32 metres above sea level. Harton is situated near the city of Sunderland, approximately 5.4 miles away, and Harton is close to nearby places such as Harton Nook, Cauldwell, and Horsley Hill. Harton has a population of around 6805 people, with Harton being characterised by predominantly semi-detached housing.
Harton and Tyne and Wear: AdBlue drains across the area
Cauldwell and Horsley Hill are among the towns near Harton, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, throughout NE postcodes. Fastest of all: give a NE34 6 postcode for the van.
Moving your car isn't needed. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near St Peter's Church Hall, a lay-by on the way to Robert Readhead Park, a drive. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you are near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of St Lawrence the Martyr.
For Harton motorists, the short version
Read the cap before you pour. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it wherever it is, wherever in Tyne and Wear: switch the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103.