Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Heworth: Why It Happens
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then set this page down a moment, keep your ignition and motor off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Normally, if your engine hasn't run, it is emptied and thoroughly cleaned where the car sits around Heworth. The rest of this page explains why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't — useful if you are reading before it has happened.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Diesel goes to the motor — but many current diesels driven around Heworth and Foss Islands carry a second fluid as well. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust stream and cleans it.
Every tank has a filler of its own. Other motors keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty more place both side by side behind one flap. Diesel gets filled on every forecourt visit, again and again. Rarely topped up, AdBlue usually goes in out of a bottle, tipped by a driver who has to stop and think which filler it needs. Mistakes happen in the gap between the two.
Heworth: how AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
On a driveway off Stockton Lane before work, or in the car park outside The Nag's Head heading home: that is where the rushed top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low the vehicle tells you, and if it is empty, limp mode follows.
Then the car is strange. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Nothing halts the pour after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Layerthorpe or the heart of Heworth: it is the same few seconds in both.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in York or a forecourt around Heworth, check these. They take a few seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally is not. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- Plenty of motors give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Look inside the fuel flap: many cars have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows which it is when the filler isn't next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Whoever had it before knows. Ask as you collect a hire car or fleet car — at York's car park, perhaps — not once the warning comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
On the day the warning comes on — anywhere it is across North Yorkshire — a simple routine to follow.
- Not in a rush on the side of Charles Moor, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park and switch off properly.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew it. It seems daft. 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, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Stage five stays out.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Heworth?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with not starting the engine. Do not switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Diluting it with extra diesel won't work, since AdBlue settles to the base instead of mixing — and that is where your fuel is pulled from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it's the Morrisons or the BP, ask the attendants to help push the vehicle clear of the pump. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive in Heworth.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. The next junction is the place to come off when you are on the A1(M), under 15 miles from Heworth. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Heworth is less a job than a trip of under 3 miles to York, so say.
When our technicians arrive in Heworth, what happens?
Outside Heworth Church of England Primary School, near Heworth Methodist Church or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, our technicians come to it. Both the work and the price depend on three answers — which fluid, which amount, and whether it has run — so our engineers ask. You hear that quote by phone, before anyone sets off.
Your system is then purged thoroughly, after the tank is cleared. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. The motor is fired up next and tested to be sure it runs smoothly, all before we leave.
Unstarted vehicles mostly mean a half-hour visit after arrival. The equipment is safe on a live forecourt, and hushed enough for a residential street late at night. 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 policy; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Heworth itself
Heworth is a suburban area located on the outskirts of York, near the lakeside and at an elevation of 18 metres. Heworth sits close to several neighbouring areas, including Layerthorpe, Tang Hall, and The Groves, and is predominantly composed of semi-detached housing. Heworth is situated approximately 1.1 miles from York city centre and 174.5 miles from London. Heworth has a population of around 5780 residents.
Heworth and North Yorkshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Being a residential suburb, Heworth has the same vans as surrounding areas — Tang Hall, The Groves — right across YO postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting YO31 1.
There's no need to move the car. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near Holy Trinity, a lay-by on the way to Hempland Lane Wildlife Area, a drive. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Heworth Church Hall, ring and ask rather than assuming.
The short version for Heworth people
Pour no AdBlue until you've read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave the car off then call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it waits, anywhere across North Yorkshire.