Why It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Higher End
Leave your motor and ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. In Higher End, finding it before your motor runs usually leaves a drain and a full flush on the spot. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of modern diesels on the roads round Higher End and Brownlow carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust gas to clean it.
There's a filler on every tank. Some motors keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others place both together behind one flap. Topping up your diesel side at the pump goes on constantly. Rarely topped up, AdBlue usually comes from a bottle, tipped by a driver who must stop and think what cap to use. That gap is where the error lives.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank happens in Higher End
Carelessness seldom causes it. Instead is three things lining up together.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from the vehicle, and running out means limp mode — so a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Upholland Road, or outside Bispham Labour Club on the way home after work.
Next, your hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old motor — because a hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the tip after it has started. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Higher End or out in Far Moor.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Look at these first, on a forecourt in Higher End or a driveway over in Orrell Post. Seconds, that's all.
- Position misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones are often blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually don't.
- On many motors, the size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Look inside your fuel flap: many cars have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- Can't see it next to the diesel inlet? Then check beneath the bonnet or in the boot — the owner's manual will say where.
- The previous driver knows. Check as you collect a rental or fleet car — at Orrell's car park, perhaps — rather than when the warning appears.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
The day the light comes on, wherever around Greater Manchester, use this routine.
- Pull in somewhere level, motor off, with time in hand — never hurried on the side of Green Lane.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew it. It sounds silly. It does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where the two share a flap, make sure it's shut before the bottle comes up.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the vehicle, close the cap and look a second time that your diesel cap was never came off.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Don't carry on to step five.
Higher End: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with no starting your engine. Don't switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel won't dilute it: instead, AdBlue drops to the bottom of the tank, just where the fuel is taken from.
Ask the attendants to help push the car clear of the petrol pump if you are on a forecourt — the Esso, the Texaco or anywhere else. Your own drive around Higher End is the place it stays.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Higher End lies under a mile from the M58; on it, take the next exit. About how far did it go? Hopping across Higher End is smaller work than a run of under 15 miles towards Liverpool, so say.
What takes place when we arrive in Higher End
Outside Orrell Newfold Community Primary School, near Memorial to Ellen Higginbottom or on your own drive: wherever your car has stopped, we come to it. Those replies determine the work and our quote, and so our engineers ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether it's run. No one heads out until you have heard the price over the phone.
Then your tank is emptied and your system purged thoroughly. 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 doesn't wash out on its own. A test is last: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and the fuel filter is cleaned or replaced as needed. The motor is fired up next and tested to make sure it runs properly, all before our engineers go.
With pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your engine hasn't run take about half an hour after our technicians are there. The insurer will ask for the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both once the job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. It is worth checking your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Higher End itself
Higher End is a suburban area in Greater Manchester, situated on the riverside with an elevation of around 108 metres. Higher End is located near several other local places, including Far Moor, Tontine, and Longshaw, and is approximately 13.4 miles from Liverpool. Higher End has a population of around 3599 people and is characterised by predominantly semi-detached housing.
AdBlue drains around Higher End, and Greater Manchester beyond
Tontine and Longshaw are among the towns near Higher End, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, throughout WN postcodes. Quickest of all: give a WN5 7 postcode for the van.
The vehicle does not need to move. Wherever it sits — near Bispham Church, in a lay-by heading to Holly Tree Day Nursery, at home — that's where it gets drained. Tricky to pin down, like the back of St Luke's Church? Close to a border? Checking is better than assuming, and so phone.
In short, for Higher End drivers
First, the cap; after that, the pour. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it waits, anywhere around Greater Manchester.