Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Hatherlow: Why It Happens
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and your ignition off and call 0333 366 0103. Around Hatherlow, finding it before the engine turns normally means a drain and a thorough flush on the spot. Nothing happened yet? Below, the rest of the page covers the reasons it takes place and the how to avoid it for good.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Diesel feeds your motor — but plenty of modern diesels seen around Hatherlow and Burymewick carry a second fluid too. The exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the fumes to clean it, from a separate tank.
Different tanks, different fillers. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in on every forecourt visit, week in, week out. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less frequently, normally from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. The slip lives in that gap.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Hatherlow: how it occurs
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
On a drive off Hatherlow before work, or in the car park at Spread Eagle on the way home: that's where the hurried top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it is gone, limp mode follows.
Then, the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old car — since a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers where your last one didn't.
A spouted bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, after started, keeps on. It takes seconds, whether out in Bredbury Green or bang in the heart of Hatherlow.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Check these first, at a forecourt in Hatherlow or a drive out in Romiley. Seconds, no more.
- Check the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue caps are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually aren't.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on many cars, the AdBlue one.
- Look inside the fuel flap: many vehicles have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says where it lives if your filler isn't next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The previous driver knows. Ask when you pick up a hire car or fleet car — at Romiley's car park, perhaps — not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
The day the light comes on, anywhere around Greater Manchester, use this routine.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of .
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where the two sit under a flap, make sure it is closed before the bottle comes up.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Find at step two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? So stop just there. Never carry on to stage five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Hatherlow?
Short order, then. Top of that: the engine stays off. Don't switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is sucked from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it's the Esso or the Morrisons, ask the staff to help push your car away from the pump. Your own driveway in Hatherlow is the place it stays.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the engine has already run. On the M60, under 3 miles from Hatherlow, that means the next exit. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Hatherlow is less work than a run of under 10 miles to Manchester, and so tell us.
Hatherlow: what happens when our technicians get there
The van reaches the car wherever it has come to rest — your own driveway, beside The Bredbury and Romiley War Memorial, or outside St Christopher's Catholic Primary School, a Voluntary Academy. Which liquid got in, the amount, and whether it ran: our engineers ask because those answers decide both work and price. You get that price by phone, before anybody heads out.
Then your tank is emptied and the fuel system rinsed thoroughly. 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 doesn't wash out on its own. Testing comes at the end: before that, clean diesel is added, and your filter is flushed or replaced as needed. We do not leave until it has been fired up and is running smoothly.
If the motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Hatherlow
Hatherlow is a suburban area in Greater Manchester, situated near the River Mersey at an elevation of 111 metres. Hatherlow lies approximately 7.5 miles from Manchester city centre and is surrounded by other local neighbourhoods such as Bredbury Green and Barrack Hill. Hatherlow has a population of around 5132 people and predominantly features semi-detached housing. Hatherlow is also relatively close to other nearby places like Tang.
AdBlue drains across Greater Manchester, Hatherlow included
Being a residential suburb, Hatherlow shares its vans nearby areas — Barrack Hill, Tang — right through SK postcodes and the wider area around them. Give a postcode beginning SK6 3, and the van gets there quickest.
No need to move your car. Draining takes place on the spot, whether a drive, a street near Bredbury Library, or a layby towards Little Wood. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you're near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Romiley Methodist Church.
For Hatherlow people, the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere across Greater Manchester, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — and so leave it off and ring 0333 366 0103.