Highfield: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Stop here a minute if your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then call 0333 366 0103. Normally, when the motor hasn't run, it's drained and fully flushed where your vehicle sits around Highfield. Reading in advance? Then what follows explains why it happens and what to stop it happening at all.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Diesel goes to the engine — but plenty of newer diesels seen around Highfield and Greenheys carry another liquid as well. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, and there a spray treats the fumes.
There's a filler on each tank. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the layout on a lot of cars. On others, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. Filling the diesel side at the pump happens constantly. Seldom topped up, AdBlue usually comes out of a bottle, tipped by a driver who has to stop and think which cap it needs. That gap is where the slip lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place in Highfield
It is hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a driveway off Watson Road before work, or in the car park outside Grapes Inn on the way home: that is where the hurried top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it's gone, limp mode kicks in.
Unfamiliar motors come next, as well. Hire cars, new motors and company motors place their fillers differently, and the hand reaches for the cap used on the old one.
Third, the bottle goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in as readily, and once the pour begins, nothing stops it. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Highfield or out in Dixon Green.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Be it a Highfield forecourt or a drive out in Spring Gardens, take a couple of seconds on these before any is poured in.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Trust the cap, not its position.
- Plenty of motors give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Open the flap and check for a label — many cars mark what goes in each filler right there.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by your diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Moses Gate, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
On the day the light appears — wherever it is around Greater Manchester — a routine to follow.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Highfield Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" out loud while unscrewing it. It sounds silly. It does the trick.
- The diesel cap remains on. When the two share a flap, make sure it's shut before the bottle comes up.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Before starting the vehicle, close the cap and look a second time that your diesel cap was never came off.
Spot at step two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? So stop just there. Do not go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Highfield?
Short list, then. Top of it: your engine remains unstarted. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch the vehicle on. Diluting it with extra diesel fails, because AdBlue settles to the bottom rather than mixing — and that's where your fuel is pulled from.
The staff at Gulf, Deccan Fuels or any forecourt will normally lend a hand to push your car clear when you ask. Your own driveway around Highfield is where it should stay.
Already run? Pull over once it is sensible, then switch off. Highfield lies under a mile from the M61; on it, take the first exit. A short hop across Highfield is a smaller job than a run towards Salford, under 10 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
What occurs when our engineers arrive in Highfield
We come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Highfield Primary School, close to St Catherine's Church or on your own drive. The answers settle this work and the price, so our engineers ask what got in, about how much, and whether it's run. You get that quote on the phone, before anyone heads out.
Then your tank is cleared and the system rinsed thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. A test comes last: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and the fuel filter is flushed or replaced as needed. Then our engineers start it and check it runs correctly before we go.
Unstarted vehicles mostly mean a half-hour job from the moment we arrive. The kit is fine on a live filling station, and quiet enough for a driveway after dark. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork an insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. It is worth looking at your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Highfield and where it is
Highfield is a suburban area in Greater Manchester, situated approximately 7 miles from Salford and 170 miles from London. Highfield sits at an elevation of 126 metres, surrounded by other local neighbourhoods such as Dixon Green and Harper Green. Highfield is characterised by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock, reflecting the typical residential development patterns of the region. Highfield forms part of the wider urban landscape of Greater Manchester, with nearby New Bury also being a notable neighbouring area.
AdBlue drains about Highfield, and Greater Manchester beyond
Over BL postcodes, our vans covering Highfield — a residential suburb — work the surrounding spots too, New Bury and Harper Green among them. Quote a postcode beginning BL4 0, and the van gets there quickest.
No need to shift the vehicle. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street near Highfield Hall Community Centre, a lay-by on the way to Great Lever & Farnworth Golf Course, a drive. Guessing won't help behind Our Lady of Lourdes & St. Gregory's Parish, on a border, or anywhere awkward to describe; ring and ask.
In short, for Highfield motorists
Tip no AdBlue until you have read the cap. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it where it is, wherever in Greater Manchester: keep the vehicle off then call 0333 366 0103.