Why It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Hawes Side
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case put this page down for now, keep the ignition and motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. Normally, when the engine hasn't run, it is emptied and fully flushed where your car sits in Hawes Side. The remainder of this page covers why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't — handy if you are reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Not one fluid but two: that is how many newer diesels around Hawes Side and South Shore carry, with diesel for the engine. Your exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the gas to fresh it, from its own tank.
There is a filler for each tank. Other cars keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others place both together under one flap. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less regularly. The mistake lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank take place around Hawes Side?
It is seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Haste comes from the warning. The vehicle tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a driveway off Hathaway, or on the way home in the car park outside Lane Ends.
The old car's cap is where the hand reaches — yet a rental car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That is the second factor: a strange car.
No part stops the pour after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Hawes Side or out in Common Edge.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Marton Moss Side or a forecourt around Hawes Side, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Position can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally don't.
- On plenty of cars, size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Check for it.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler is if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Blackpool South? Check with whoever drove it last before you set off, rather than when the light goes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
Anywhere across Lancashire the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Towneley Avenue.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" aloud as unscrewing it. It seems daft. It does the trick.
- The diesel cap remains on. When both share a flap, confirm it's shut before lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start your car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Don't carry on to step five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Hawes Side?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your motor. Do not switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Thinning it with extra diesel won't work, since AdBlue sinks to the base instead of mixing — and that's where the fuel is pulled from.
On a forecourt — Asda, Esso or another — the staff will normally help push the car away, when you ask. On your own drive around Hawes Side? So the vehicle remains put.
When your engine has been run already, stop safely and switch it off. The next junction means where to leave when you are on the M55, under 3 miles from Hawes Side. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Hawes Side is less a job than a run of under 15 miles to Preston, and so say.
What happens when our engineers arrive around Hawes Side
By Hawes Side Academy, near St Christopher & St Nicholas or on your own driveway: wherever the car has stopped, we come to it. Both the work and our quote rest on three answers — which fluid, what amount, and whether it's run — so our technicians ask. Nobody heads out before you have had the price over the phone.
Emptying that tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the fuel system. Much more than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: crystals build up, some metals are attacked, and nothing clears out unaided, no matter how long it sits. Filter cleaned or, where needed, replaced; fresh diesel in; then a check of your car. We don't leave until it has been started and is running correctly.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour once our technicians arrive, as long as the motor hasn't run — and the pumps we use are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet after dark outside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. While we travel, take a look at your insurance documents; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Hawes Side
Hawes Side is a coastal suburban area in Lancashire, situated near the cities of Preston and Blackpool. Hawes Side has a relatively low elevation of around 7 metres above sea level, and is close to nearby places such as Common Edge and Great Marton. Hawes Side is characterised by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock, and is home to a population of approximately 8807 people.
AdBlue drains across Lancashire, Hawes Side included
Walkers Hill and Great Marton are among the places around Hawes Side, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, over FY postcodes. A postcode starting FY4 4 gets the van to you fastest.
Shifting the car is not needed. Anywhere it stands — near Bostonway Community Centre, in a layby en route to Bridge House Road Playing Field, on a drive — that is where it is drained. Assuming doesn't help at the back of Molyneux Drive Community Centre, on a border, or somewhere hard to describe; phone and ask.
In short, for Hawes Side drivers
Tip no AdBlue till you've read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere in Lancashire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — so leave the vehicle off then call 0333 366 0103.