Hockerley: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Stop reading for a moment when your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. Normally, when the motor hasn't turned, it is emptied and thoroughly purged where your car sits in Hockerley. Nothing happened yet? Below, the rest of the page covers the why it takes place and the ways to avoid it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel goes to your motor — but many current diesels seen about Hockerley and New Horwich hold another fluid too. The exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the fumes to fresh them, from its own tank.
Different tanks, separate fillers. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is filled at the petrol pump all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less frequently, usually from a bottle, and usually by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. The error lives in that gap.
Hockerley: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
Carelessness seldom causes it. Instead is three things coming up at once.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from the car, and running dry leads to limp mode — so a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Hockerley Lane, or at The Goyt Inn on the way home that evening.
Next, your hand goes for the cap it knew on the old motor — since a hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the tip once it has started. Bridgemont or the heart of Hockerley: it is the same few seconds either way.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Look at these first, on a forecourt around Hockerley or a drive out in Furness Vale. A few seconds, no more.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- Open the flap and check for a label — plenty of motors show what goes in which filler just there.
- The handbook says where it is if the filler is not next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Whaley Bridge.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Derbyshire that is.
- Turn off after you park — level ground, motor stopped, and never rushed by Hockerley Avenue at the roadside.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" out loud as unscrewing it. It seems daft. It does the trick.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where the two sit under a flap, make sure it's closed before lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check once more, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Leave out stage five altogether.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Hockerley?
Do not start your motor: that's how the short order of things starts. Leave the ignition off as well, since on many diesels switching it on alone starts your pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is sucked from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
Ask the attendants to help roll the vehicle away from the petrol pump if you're at a forecourt — the Tesco, the New Mills Marina Diesel Pump or anywhere else. If you are on your own drive around Hockerley, leave the car where it is.
Where the engine has been run already, pull over somewhere safe then turn it off. Leave the M60 — under 10 miles out of Hockerley — at the next junction. About how far did it go? Crossing Hockerley is less work than a run of under 15 miles to Manchester, and so tell us.
Our arrival in Hockerley, and what happens next
Outside Whaley Bridge Primary School, near Bridgemont Village Hall or on your own driveway: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our technicians come to it. What fluid was put in, the quantity, and if it ran: we ask because those replies decide both work and quote. You hear that price on the phone, before anyone sets off.
After that: draining, then a thorough flush of the whole system. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and none of it washes out unaided. Hence it matters more. After your filter is cleaned — or replaced, if needed — clean diesel goes in, and finally your car is tested. The engine is started next and tested to be sure it runs correctly, all before our technicians head off.
If your engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. No money in advance; you settle up that day. At the end, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — so use the wait to look at yours.
About Hockerley itself
Hockerley is a suburban area in Derbyshire, situated near the river and surrounded by rolling hills, with Bridgemont and Stoneheads nearby. Hockerley has a relatively high elevation of 211 metres, and its residents are approximately 148.7 miles from London. Hockerley is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, which reflects the area's residential nature.
AdBlue drains in Hockerley and across Derbyshire
Stoneheads and Whaley Bridge are among the towns near Hockerley, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, throughout SK postcodes. Give a postcode that starts SK23 7, and our van gets there quickest.
Moving your car is not necessary. Anywhere it sits — beside Church of the Sacred Heart, on a layby heading to Ringstone Clough, on a drive — that is where it is cleared. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Mechanics Institute, ring and ask instead of assuming.
The short version for Hockerley motorists
Before you tip, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere around Derbyshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — and so leave the car off then ring 0333 366 0103.