Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Higher Shotton: Why It Happens
Pause here a minute if your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Higher Shotton. The rest of this page explains why it happens and how to ensure it doesn't — useful if you are reading before it has happened.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Many newer diesels around Wepre, as well as Higher Shotton, carry on two fluids; your engine gets only the diesel. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, where a spray treats the fumes.
There is a filler on each tank. Under one flap, side by side: that's the layout on a lot of motors. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in the boot instead. At the petrol pump, your diesel side is topped up all the time. Much less frequently, the AdBlue side is filled — mostly from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. Mistakes happen in the gap between them.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place around Higher Shotton
Carelessness seldom causes it. What does is three things coming up together.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from your car, and letting it run dry leads to limp mode — so a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Shotton Lane, perhaps at The Melrose Inn on the way home after work.
The old car's cap is where your hand goes — yet a hire car, a new motor or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That's a second factor: an unfamiliar car.
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 pour after it has started. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Higher Shotton or out in Shotton.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
A few seconds is all these take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Ewloe or a forecourt in Higher Shotton.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones are often blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally don't.
- On many vehicles, the size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside the fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on many cars. Check for it.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler is if it is not by the diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Shotton? Check with the person who drove the car last before you set off, rather than once the light goes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
For the day the warning comes on — anywhere you are around Flintshire — a simple routine to follow.
- Not in a rush on the side of Thornfields, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park and switch off first.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you have found the filler and read the cap.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the vehicle on.
- Finish when the tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; before that, pour gently through its own spout.
- Before starting the vehicle, close the cap and look a second time that the diesel cap never came off.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Stage five is off limits.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Higher Shotton already?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with not starting your engine. Leave your ignition off too, because on plenty of diesels switching it on alone runs your fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is sucked from.
On a forecourt — Esso, Asda or any other — the staff will usually help roll the car away, if you ask. At home around Higher Shotton? Then the vehicle stays where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the motor has already run. On the M56, under 10 miles from Higher Shotton, that means the next junction. A short hop across Higher Shotton is a smaller job than a run towards Chester, under 10 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
What takes place when our technicians get there around Higher Shotton
Wherever the car has stopped, be it by Saughall All Saints Church of England Primary School, near Elmwood Close Community Centre or at home, our van comes to it. Our engineers ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether it's run, because those answers decide the work and our quote. During the call itself, you hear the quote — before dispatch.
Draining that tank comes next, followed by a full flush of your system. Much more than with petrol, it matters here: the crystals build up, some metals are attacked, and nothing washes away unaided, however long it sits. Testing comes at the end: before that, clean diesel goes in, and the filter is cleaned or replaced as needed. Before we leave, our engineers fire it up and make sure that it is running properly.
Unrun vehicles mostly need a half-hour visit after the moment we arrive. The equipment is fine on a live filling station, and quiet enough for a residential street after dark. No money upfront; you settle up that day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. It's worth looking at your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Higher Shotton, for a moment
Higher Shotton is a suburban area in Flintshire, situated near the coast and approximately 6 miles from Chester. Higher Shotton has a relatively low elevation of around 25 metres, and its housing stock is predominantly semi-detached. Higher Shotton is close to nearby places such as Shotton, Aston, and Queensferry, and is home to a population of around 3892 people.
AdBlue drains around Higher Shotton, and Flintshire beyond
Higher Shotton is a residential suburb, and the vans that cover it also work the places near it, Aston and Queensferry among them, across the CH postcode area. Give a postcode beginning CH5 1, and the van arrives quickest.
The vehicle remains put. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to 33 Club, a side street near Aston Park Community Centre: our technicians drain it where it sits. Guessing won't help behind The Parish Church of St Ethelwold, on a boundary, or somewhere awkward to describe; phone and ask.
Higher Shotton motorists: the short version
Tip no AdBlue till you've read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Leave the car switched off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, throughout Flintshire.