AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Hillsborough: Why It Occurs and How to Stop It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and the ignition off and call 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Hillsborough. Here before the event? In that case the rest covers how it happens and how to stop it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Plenty of newer diesels in Drumlough, like those in Hillsborough, run on two fluids; your motor takes just your diesel. 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. Under one flap, side by side: that's the arrangement on many motors. On others, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. Topping up the diesel side at the pump happens all the time. Far less frequently, the AdBlue side gets topped up — mostly from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. It is in that gap that the mistake happens.
Hillsborough: how AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs
It's seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Hurry follows from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a driveway off Dunskey Street, or heading home in the car park outside the pub in the village.
The old car's cap is where your hand reaches — yet a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That's a second factor: a strange motor.
Nothing halts the tip after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Ravernet or the middle of Hillsborough: it is the same few seconds either way.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Check these first, on a forecourt around Hillsborough or a drive over in Lurganure. A few seconds, that's all.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- Many cars give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of cars say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by your diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside the nearest station, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across County Down that is.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of South Crescent.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, yes, yet it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave it on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, and check again — making sure the diesel cap stayed shut the whole time. Only then, start your car.
Find during the second or third stage that AdBlue went in the diesel filler? That's where you stop. Skip step five altogether.
Hillsborough: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with not starting your engine. Do not switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is drawn from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
At a forecourt — the nearest petrol station, another forecourt nearby or another — the attendants will usually help push your car away, when you ask. If you're on your own drive in Hillsborough, leave it where it stands.
When the motor has been run by now, stop safely then switch it off. On the M77, over 50 miles from Hillsborough, that means the next exit. Distance matters — a short hop across Hillsborough is a smaller job than driving under 5 miles towards Lisburn — so say about how far it went.
What takes place when we get there around Hillsborough
Our engineers come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside the local primary school, close to the centre or on your own driveway. Both the work and the price depend on three answers — what fluid, which quantity, and if it has run — so we ask. The quote comes on the call, before any van leaves.
The system is then flushed thoroughly, after your tank is emptied. More than with petrol, it counts here: the crystals build up, some metals are attacked, and nothing clears out unaided, no matter how long it sits. Testing is at the end: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and the filter is flushed or changed as needed. We don't go until it has been started and is running correctly.
If your engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. The insurer will ask for the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. Before we get there, take a look at your insurance documents; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Hillsborough
Hillsborough is a locality in County Down, situated inland at an elevation of 94 metres, approximately 4 miles from Lisburn. Hillsborough is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its suburban edge location. Hillsborough sits near several smaller settlements, including Ravernet, Keshbridge, and Mazetown, in the wider countryside of Northern Ireland.
Hillsborough and County Down: AdBlue drains across the area
Over BT postcodes, the teams that cover Hillsborough — a small village — work the surrounding spots too, Mazetown and Keshbridge among them. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting BT26 6.
There's no need to shift the car. We drain it where it is — a side street near a street just off the centre, a lay-by on the way to the green space at the edge of the village, a driveway. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of the far end of the built-up part.
For Hillsborough people, the short version
Always, the cap; after that, the pour. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere around County Down, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless — and so leave the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103.