AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Higham: How It Happens and How to Prevent It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and the ignition off and call 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Higham. The rest of this page explains why it occurs and how to ensure it does not — handy if you're reading before it has happened.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Not one fluid but two: that's how many modern diesels near Higham and Barugh carry, with diesel feeding your engine. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Filling your diesel side at the petrol pump happens constantly. Rarely filled, AdBlue normally goes in out of a bottle, poured by someone who must stop and think what cap to use. The slip lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs around Higham
It is hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a drive off Pog Well Lane before work, or in the car park outside Engineers Arms on the way home: that is where the rushed top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low your car tells you, and once it is gone, limp mode follows.
Then the car is new. 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.
No part stops 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. It takes a few seconds, whether out in Barugh Green or right in the heart of Higham.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Low Barugh or a forecourt around Higham, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually is not. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- On plenty of motors, size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows which it lives when the filler is not next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Whoever had it before knows. Ask as you pick up a rental or company car — from Dodworth's car park, say — not once the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
The day the light comes on, wherever in South Yorkshire, follow this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Higham Common Road, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park then switch off first.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, perhaps, yet it works.
- The two behind a single flap? So confirm the lid on your diesel filler is still shut ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Stage five is off limits.
Higham: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Don't start the engine: that is how the short order of things begins. The fuel pump starts on many diesels the moment the ignition goes on — and so leave it off. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
At a forecourt — Jet, another forecourt nearby or another — the attendants will normally help roll the car clear, if you ask. At home around Higham? Then your car stays where it is.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. On the M1, under a mile from Higham, that means the next junction. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Higham is smaller work than a trip of under 10 miles to Wakefield, so tell us.
What happens when our engineers get there around Higham
By Barugh Green Primary School, near St Thomas or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our technicians come to it. What liquid was put in, the quantity, and if it ran: our engineers ask because the answers set both work and quote. No one heads out until you have had our price over the phone.
Then that tank is drained and the system purged thoroughly. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and neither clears away by itself. That is why it matters more. A test comes at the end: before that, fresh diesel is added, and the fuel filter is flushed or changed if necessary. We don't leave until it has been started and is running correctly.
Unrun cars mostly mean a half-hour visit after the moment we arrive. The kit is safe on a busy filling station, and hushed enough for a driveway after dark. Nothing in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. Misfuelling cover is included in many insurance policies — so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Higham and where it is
Higham is a village in South Yorkshire, situated inland at an elevation of 133 metres, approximately 8.6 miles from Wakefield. Higham has a population of around 1448 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Higham is close to nearby places such as Barugh Green, Higham Common, and Redbrook, and is about 153.7 miles north of London.
AdBlue drains across South Yorkshire, Higham included
Throughout S postcodes, the teams that cover Higham — a rural village — work the nearby locations too, Redbrook and Higham Common included. Fastest of all: give a S75 1 postcode to the van.
Your car doesn't need to shift. Wherever it sits — near St Thomas’s Community Centre, on a lay-by en route to Hugset Wood, on a drive — that is where it gets emptied. Assuming doesn't help behind Bannatyne Health Club And Spa, on a border, or anywhere awkward to describe; ring and ask.
In short, for Higham people
Before you pour, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave it off and phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it waits, anywhere across South Yorkshire.