Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Hartsholme: Why It Happens
Leave the engine and ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. A drain plus a thorough flush, carried out just where your car stands in Hartsholme, is normally what it needs when caught before your engine runs. Nothing happened yet? Below, the page explains the why it occurs and the ways to prevent it altogether.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Not one fluid but two: that is how plenty of newer diesels around Hartsholme and Boultham carry, with diesel feeding the motor. Your exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the gas to fresh it, from its own tank.
Every tank has one filler of its own. Many of motors share a single flap for both, whereas some move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is fuelled at the petrol pump all the time. Rarely filled, AdBlue normally comes out of a bottle, tipped by a driver who has to stop and think what cap it needs. That gap is where the slip lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank occur in Hartsholme?
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car 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 drive off Almond Avenue before work, or in the car park outside Crown & Arrows on the way home.
Then the vehicle is strange. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Nothing stops the tip once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Swanpool or the middle of Hartsholme: it takes the same few seconds in both.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Birchwood or a forecourt in Hartsholme.
- Position misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue caps are often blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually do not.
- Plenty of motors give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Open the flap and check for a label — many vehicles mark what belongs in which filler right there.
- The handbook says where it lives if the filler isn't next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Ask 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 outside Hykeham.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
When the light comes on, anywhere around Lincolnshire, follow this routine.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Ashby Avenue.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, and look again — confirm the diesel cap stayed closed throughout. Only then, start the car.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Leave out stage five altogether.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Hartsholme?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with no starting the engine. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch the vehicle on. Topping up with diesel will not weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of your tank, just where the fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — Sainsbury's, Shell or another — the staff will normally help push the vehicle clear, if you ask. Your own drive around Hartsholme is the place it stays.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your motor has already run. The next exit means where to come off if you are on the M180, under 25 miles from Hartsholme. Mileage counts — a quick hop across Hartsholme makes a smaller job than driving under 3 miles to Lincoln — so say about how far it went.
Hartsholme: what happens when our technicians arrive
We come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Hartsholme Academy, close to Starmers Pits or on your own drive. What liquid went in, the amount, and whether it ran: we ask because those answers set both work and quote. No one sets off before you have had our quote over the phone.
Next: draining, then a thorough flush of the whole system. Much more than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: the crystals build up, some metals are attacked, and nothing washes out unaided, however long it sits. Filter cleaned or, where needed, replaced; clean diesel in; and then a test of the car. Before leaving, our engineers start it and make sure that it's running smoothly.
With pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where your motor has not run need about half an hour after our engineers arrive. No money in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Hartsholme and where it is
Hartsholme is a suburban area situated on the outskirts of Lincoln, overlooking the lakes and surrounding countryside. Hartsholme sits at a low elevation of around 10 metres, close to the nearby Swanpool and Boultham Moor. Hartsholme is characterized by its semi-detached housing and proximity to the city of Lincoln, which is approximately 2.2 miles away. Hartsholme is also near the Swallow Beck, a local watercourse that flows through the area.
AdBlue drains around Hartsholme, and Lincolnshire beyond
Over LN postcodes, our teams that cover Hartsholme — a residential suburb — work the nearby places too, Swallow Beck and Boultham Moor included. A postcode starting LN6 0 gets the van to you fastest.
There's no need to move the car. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Hartsholme Cricket Club and North Hykeham Croquet Club, a side street close to Holy Cross Church: our engineers drain the vehicle where it stands. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Moorland Park Methodist Church, ring and ask rather than guessing.
In short, for Hartsholme motorists
Pour nothing until you've read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere across Lincolnshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless — so leave the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103.