How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Heddon-on-the-Wall
Leave your motor and ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Usually, if the motor hasn't turned, it is emptied and fully flushed where your car is in Heddon-on-the-Wall. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel goes to your motor — but plenty of newer diesels driven about Heddon-on-the-Wall and Throckley hold another fluid too. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There is a filler on every tank. 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. Topping up your diesel side at the petrol pump happens constantly. Much less commonly, the AdBlue side is topped up — mostly from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. That gap is where the mistake lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Heddon-on-the-Wall: how it happens
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, your vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Towne Gate before work, or in the car park at The Swan on the way home.
New-to-you cars are next, as well. Hire cars, new vehicles and company vehicles place their fillers in new places, and the hand reaches for the cap used on the old one.
Third, the spout goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in just as easily, and after the tip starts, nothing halts it. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Heddon-on-the-Wall or out in Houghton.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a drive in Wylam or a forecourt around Heddon-on-the-Wall.
- Check the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue caps are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally are not.
- On plenty of motors, the size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on many motors. Check for it.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by your diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Wylam.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Northumberland that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Taberna Close, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park and switch off properly.
- 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 your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start your car, shut the cap and check a second time that your diesel cap never opened off.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Do not go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Heddon-on-the-Wall?
Do not start the motor: that's where the short order of things starts. Do not switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is sucked from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it's the Shell or the another forecourt nearby, ask the attendants to help push your car clear of the pump. On your own drive in Heddon-on-the-Wall? So your car stays where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the motor has already run. Heddon-on-the-Wall lies under 10 miles from the Central Motorway East; on it, use the next junction. A short hop across Heddon-on-the-Wall is a smaller job than a run towards Newcastle upon Tyne, under 10 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
Our arrival in Heddon-on-the-Wall, and what takes place next
The van comes to the car wherever it stopped — your own drive, near St Andrew's Church, or outside Heddon-on-the-Wall, St Andrew's Church of England Primary School. Both the work and the quote depend on three answers — what liquid, what quantity, and whether it has run — so our engineers ask. On the call itself, you are told our quote — ahead of dispatch.
Then your tank is emptied and the system cleaned thoroughly. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and none of it washes away by itself. That is why it counts more. The filter flushed or, if needed, swapped; fresh diesel in; then a test of your vehicle. Before leaving, we start the engine and check that it is running properly.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour once our engineers arrive, as long as your engine has not run — and the pumps our technicians use are fine on a live forecourt and quiet after dark outside a house. Nothing upfront; you settle up that day. At the end, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Heddon-on-the-Wall and where it is
Heddon-on-the-Wall is a village in Northumberland, situated approximately 7 miles west of Newcastle upon Tyne, at an elevation of around 132 metres. Heddon-on-the-Wall has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are predominant, and it is close to nearby places such as Houghton and Clara Vale. Heddon-on-the-Wall is located in the inland area of Northumberland, with the city of Newcastle upon Tyne being the nearest urban centre.
AdBlue drains about Heddon-on-the-Wall, and Northumberland beyond
Bank Top and Clara Vale are among the places around Heddon-on-the-Wall, a rural village, that the same vans cover, over NE postcodes. A postcode starting NE15 0 gets our van to you fastest.
No need to move your car. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Great Hill, a side street close to Heddon Methodist Church: our engineers drain it where it sits. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Hadrian's Wall, ring and ask rather than guessing.
In short, for Heddon-on-the-Wall drivers
Read the cap before you pour. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere around Northumberland, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — and so leave the car off then ring 0333 366 0103.