Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Heath
Keep the engine and ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Caught before your engine runs, it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Heath. Not happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page covers the reasons it takes place and the how to prevent it altogether.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Many newer diesels in Higher Runcorn, like those in Heath, carry on two liquids; your engine takes only your diesel. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, where spraying treats the gas.
Each tank comes with one filler of its own. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the layout on a lot of vehicles. On others, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in the boot instead. The diesel side is fuelled at the pump all the time. Far less regularly, the AdBlue side gets topped up — normally from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. Mistakes happen in the gap between the two.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank happens around Heath
Carelessness rarely causes it. Instead is three things lining up together.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the car goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Malpas Road before work, or in the car park outside The Cherry Tree on the way home.
Then the car is new. A hire car, a new motor 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.
A spouted bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, after started, carries on. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Heath or out in Grange.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Halton Brook or a forecourt in Heath, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally isn't. Read it rather than going by position.
- On plenty of cars, the size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Open the flap and check for a label — plenty of motors mark which goes in which filler just there.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by your diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park at Runcorn? Check with whoever drove the car last before leaving, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
Anywhere across Cheshire the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Stop on level, engine off, with time to spare — never hurried on the side of Lycroft Close.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Stop when that tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; until then, tip gently using the built-in spout.
- Before starting the car, shut the cap and look again that your diesel cap never came off.
Spot at stage two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? Then stop just there. Never go on to step five.
Heath: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with not starting your motor. Leave the ignition off as well, because on plenty of diesels it alone starts the fuel pump. Diluting it with extra diesel fails, since AdBlue settles to the bottom rather than mixing — and that is where your fuel is sucked from.
The staff at North West Fuels, Asda or any forecourt will usually lend a hand to push your car clear if asked. If you are on your own driveway around Heath, leave the vehicle where it sits.
Where your motor has been run already, stop somewhere safe then switch the car off. The next exit is where to come off when you are on the M56, under 3 miles from Heath. About how far did it go? Crossing Heath is less a job than a trip of under 15 miles to Chester, and so say.
What happens when we arrive around Heath
By Pewithall School, close to Hope Corner Community Church or on your own drive: wherever your car has stopped, we come to it. Our engineers ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether it's run, because the answers settle the work and our quote. On the call itself, you are told the quote — ahead of dispatch.
Draining the tank comes next, followed by a full flush of your system. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and neither clears away unaided. That is why it matters more. After the fuel filter has been flushed — or replaced, where needed — fresh diesel goes in, and finally your car is tested. The motor is started next and tested to make sure it runs correctly, all before our engineers go.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour once our technicians get there, as long as your motor hasn't run — and the pumps our engineers use are safe on a live forecourt yet quiet at night 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 include cover for misfuelling.
About Heath itself
Heath is a suburban area in Cheshire, situated near the coast and approximately 11.5 miles from Chester. Heath has a relatively low elevation of 68 metres and is part of a larger residential area that includes nearby Grange, Rocksavage, and Weston. Heath is characterized by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock, which reflects the typical North West English suburban architecture. Heath is also relatively distant from London, at around 166.5 miles away.
AdBlue drains round Heath, and Cheshire beyond
Rocksavage and Weston are among the places near Heath, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, throughout WA postcodes. A postcode starting WA7 4 gets our van to you fastest.
Moving the vehicle is not needed. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street close to Kingdom Hall, a lay-by on the way to Runcorn Golf Course, a driveway. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Heath people: the short version
Always, the cap; after that, the pour. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Leave it off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, across Cheshire.