AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Hebburn Colliery: How It Occurs and How to Prevent It
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then put this page down a moment, leave the ignition and motor off, then phone 0333 366 0103. Usually, if the engine has not turned, it is emptied and fully flushed where your car sits around Hebburn Colliery. The remainder of this page covers why it happens and how to ensure it does not — handy if you're reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Not one liquid but two: that's what many newer diesels near Hebburn Colliery and Rosehill run, with diesel for your motor. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Different tanks, separate fillers. Some vehicles keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others place both together behind one flap. The diesel side is topped up at the petrol pump all the time. Much less regularly, the AdBlue side is filled — mostly from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. It's in the gap that the mistake lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen in Hebburn Colliery?
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out completely, your vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Colliery Close before work, or in the car park outside The White Lead on the way home.
Unfamiliar vehicles come second, as well. Hire cars, new vehicles and company cars place their fillers differently, and habit reaches for the cap used on the old one.
No part halts the tip after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Hebburn Row or the middle of Hebburn Colliery: it is the same few seconds in both.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Check these first, on a forecourt around Hebburn Colliery or a drive out in Jarrow. A few seconds, no more.
- Position misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally don't.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- Look inside your fuel flap: plenty of cars carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler sits if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Brockley Whins? Ask the person who drove the vehicle last before you set off, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
For the day the light appears — anywhere it is across Tyne and Wear — a simple routine to follow.
- Not in a rush on the side of Brancepeth Road, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park then switch off first.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, yes, but it works.
- The diesel cap remains on. When both share a flap, make sure it's closed before the bottle comes up.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, and check again — making sure your diesel cap remained shut the whole time. Only then, start your car.
Spot at stage two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? Then stop just there. Don't carry on to step five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Hebburn Colliery already?
The short order of things, starting with not starting your motor. Do not switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
Ask the attendants to help roll the vehicle clear of the pump if you are on a forecourt — the the nearest petrol station, the Carville Service Station or anywhere else. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway in Hebburn Colliery.
Already started? Pull over once it's sensible, then turn off. The next exit means where to leave if you are on the A194(M), under 3 miles from Hebburn Colliery. About how far did it go? Hopping across Hebburn Colliery is smaller work than a trip of under 5 miles to Newcastle upon Tyne, so tell us.
What happens when we get there around Hebburn Colliery
Our technicians come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside St Oswald's CofE Aided Primary School, close to St Oswalds Parish C Of E Church or on your own driveway. Both the work and the price rest on three answers — which fluid, what amount, and whether it's run — so our engineers ask. You get that price by phone, before anybody sets off.
The system is then purged thoroughly, after your tank is drained. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own. The filter cleaned or, where it must be, swapped; clean diesel in; then a test of your car. We don't leave until it has been started and is running properly.
Unstarted cars mostly mean a half-hour job from arrival. The equipment is fine on a busy forecourt, and hushed enough for a residential street late at night. Your insurer will ask for an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. While we travel, take a look at your policy; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Hebburn Colliery
Hebburn Colliery is a locality situated on the south bank of the River Tyne in Tyne and Wear, near the city of Newcastle upon Tyne. Hebburn Colliery has a relatively low elevation of around 25 metres above sea level, and its riverside setting has influenced its development. Hebburn Colliery is part of a larger urban area that includes nearby places such as Hebburn Row and Hebburn New Town, with terraced housing being a predominant feature. Hebburn Colliery is located approximately 246.8 miles north of London, and is close to the regional centre of Newcastle upon Tyne.
AdBlue drains around Hebburn Colliery and across Tyne and Wear
Over NE postcodes, our vans that cover Hebburn Colliery — a small village — work the nearby locations too, Hebburn New Town and Point Pleasant included. Fastest of all: give a NE31 1 postcode for the van.
The vehicle stays where it is. A drive, a lay-by on the way to School Street Park, a side street near Byron Avenue Community Centre: our engineers drain the vehicle where it is. Guessing won't help at the back of Saint Cuthbert's Church, on a boundary, or anywhere awkward to pin down; phone and ask.
Hebburn Colliery people: the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Keep it off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, across Tyne and Wear.