Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Higher Constable: Why It Happens
Pause reading for a moment when your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and ring 0333 366 0103. In Higher Constable, catching it before your engine runs normally means draining and a thorough flush where it stands. Not happened yet? Further down, the page covers the why it occurs and the how to prevent it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Many modern diesels in Rush Bed, as well as Higher Constable, run on two fluids; the engine takes just the diesel. Your exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the gas to clean it, from a separate tank.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Plenty of vehicles share a single flap for the two, whereas some put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Topping up your diesel side at the petrol pump happens constantly. Much less commonly, the AdBlue side gets topped up — mostly from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. The mistake grows in the gap between them.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen in Higher Constable?
It is seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a driveway off Slaidburn Avenue before work, or in the car park outside The White Lion 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's gone, limp mode kicks in.
Unfamiliar vehicles come second, as well. Rentals, new cars and company cars put their fillers differently, and habit goes for the cap used on the old one.
Third, the spout fits: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in just as readily, and once the pour begins, nothing stops it. Laund or the middle of Higher Constable: it takes the same few seconds in both.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Whether a Higher Constable forecourt or a drive out in Rake Foot, spend a few seconds on these before anything goes in.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Trust the cap, not its position.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many motors say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says which it lives when the filler isn't next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Accrington? Ask whoever drove it last before leaving, not when the light goes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
Anywhere in Lancashire the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Lime Tree Grove, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park and switch off first.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, perhaps, yet it does the trick.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Stop when that tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; before that, pour slowly using its built-in spout.
- Before you start the car, close the cap and check again that your diesel cap never came off.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Stage five is out.
Higher Constable: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Do not start your motor: that is where the short order of things starts. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch the car on. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is sucked from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
On a forecourt — Shell, Tesco or any other — the staff will usually help roll the car clear, when you ask. If you're on your own drive around Higher Constable, leave it where it sits.
Where your motor has been run by now, stop somewhere safe and switch it off. Higher Constable lies under 5 miles from the M66; on it, take the first exit. About how far did it go? Hopping across Higher Constable is smaller work than a trip of under 25 miles towards Salford, and so say.
Higher Constable: what occurs when we turn up
Our engineers come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Rawtenstall St Paul's Church of England Primary School, near St Paul or on your own driveway. Our technicians ask what went in, about how much, and if it has run, since the replies settle the work and the quote. Nobody sets off before you have heard the quote over the phone.
The system is then cleaned thoroughly, after your tank is emptied. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Before we leave, our technicians start the car and check that it's running properly.
If your engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It's worth checking your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Higher Constable and where it is
Higher Constable is a suburban area in Lancashire, situated on the riverside with an elevation of 206 metres. Higher Constable is located near several smaller communities, including Laund, Reeds Holme, and Constable Lee, and is approximately 16 miles from the city of Salford. Higher Constable has a population of around 3185 people and features predominantly detached housing.
Higher Constable and Lancashire: AdBlue drains across the area
Over BB postcodes, our teams that cover Higher Constable — a residential suburb — work the surrounding spots too, Constable Lee and Reeds Holme included. A postcode starting BB4 8 gets our van to you fastest.
The vehicle does not need to move. The drain happens on the spot, be it a drive, a street by St James the Less, or a lay-by towards Whittaker Park. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Rawtenstall Market.
For Higher Constable drivers, the short version
Tip no AdBlue till you've read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere around Lancashire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — and so leave the car off and call 0333 366 0103.