Heage: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Keep the motor and ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. In Heage, catching it before your engine runs normally leaves draining and a full flush on the spot. Not happened yet? Below, the page covers the why it happens and the how to prevent it altogether.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Plenty of modern diesels around Lower Hartshay, like those in Heage, carry on two liquids; your motor gets only the diesel. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There's a filler on every tank. Under one flap, side by side: that's the arrangement on many motors. On others, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in the boot instead. Filling your diesel side at the pump goes on all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less regularly, usually from a bottle, and normally by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. The slip lives in that gap.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Heage: how it happens
Carelessness rarely causes it. What does is three things coming up together.
Hurry comes from the warning. The vehicle tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a drive off Brook Street, or on the way home in the car park at The Eagle Tavern.
Then, the hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old car — because a rental car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't.
Nothing halts the tip once 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 Heage or out in Upper Hartshay.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A few seconds is all these take — so check them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Buckland Hollow or a forecourt in Heage.
- Check the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue ones are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually aren't.
- Many vehicles fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Lift the filler flap and look for a label — plenty of vehicles mark what belongs in which filler right there.
- Cannot find it beside the diesel inlet? In that case look beneath the bonnet or in the boot — the owner's manual 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 outside Ambergate.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Derbyshire that is.
- Pull in somewhere level, motor off, with time to spare — not rushing on the side of Eagle Street.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you have located the filler and read the cap.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Stop when your tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; until then, tip gently through the built-in spout.
- Before you start your car, close the cap and check a second time that your diesel cap never came off.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Don't go on to stage five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Heage?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the motor. Do not switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is drawn from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
On a forecourt — The Co-operative, Essar or another — the attendants will usually help push your car clear, when you ask. If you're on your own driveway around Heage, leave the vehicle where it sits.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the engine has already run. Heage lies under 10 miles from the M1; there, use the next junction. A short hop across Heage is a smaller job than a run towards Derby, under 10 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
Heage: what occurs when our technicians turn up
The van comes to your car anywhere it has come to rest — your own drive, beside St Luke's Church, Heage, or by Heage Primary School. Our technicians ask what went in, about how much, and if it's run, because those answers determine the work and the quote. The price comes over the phone, before any van leaves.
Then your tank is drained and your system flushed thoroughly. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and none of that washes away by itself. Hence it counts more. After the filter has been flushed — or replaced, if needed — clean diesel goes in, and finally the vehicle is tested. We do not go until it has been fired up and is running smoothly.
If your engine hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Your insurer will ask for an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both once this job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. While we travel, have a look at your policy; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Heage itself
Heage is a village in Derbyshire, situated on the banks of the River Derwent at an elevation of 117 metres. Heage lies approximately 8.8 miles north of Derby and 120.3 miles north of London, with nearby villages including Upper Hartshay and Nether Heage. Heage has a population of around 1197 people and is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock. Heage enjoys a scenic riverside setting, with the surrounding countryside offering opportunities for outdoor activities.
AdBlue drains around Heage and across Derbyshire
Nether Heage and Boothgate are among the towns near Heage, a village, that the same teams cover, over DE postcodes. Quote a postcode beginning DE56 2, and the van gets there fastest.
Your car doesn't need to move. We drain it where it is — a side street near Heage Village Hall, a lay-by on the way to Lower Hartshay Park, a drive. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Heage Methodist Chapel, ring and ask instead of guessing.
In short, for Heage people
Pour nothing until you've read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere in Derbyshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — so leave it off then call 0333 366 0103.