How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Hollingthorpe
Stop reading for a moment if your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. In Hollingthorpe, finding it before the motor runs usually leaves a drain and a thorough flush on the spot. Here before the event? In that case what follows explains how it happens and what to prevent it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
No single liquid but two: that's what many newer diesels near Hollingthorpe and Crigglestone carry, with diesel for your engine. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust stream to clean it.
Each tank has its own filler. Plenty of cars have a single flap for both, while some move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, your diesel side gets filled constantly. Far less regularly, the AdBlue side gets filled — normally from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. It is in that gap that the slip lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place around Hollingthorpe
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, your vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Copeworth Drive before work, or in the car park outside The Bay Horse on the way home.
Then the vehicle is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Third, the spout goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in as readily, and after the pour begins, nothing stops it. It takes seconds, whether out in Hall Green or bang in the centre of Hollingthorpe.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A couple of seconds is all these take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Newmillerdam or a forecourt in Hollingthorpe.
- Read the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually are not.
- The size. On plenty of motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on many vehicles. Check for it.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by the diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Sandal & Agbrigg.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
The day the light goes on, wherever in West Yorkshire, follow this routine.
- Stop somewhere level, engine off, with time in hand — never hurried on the side of Russell Avenue.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew it. It sounds silly. It does the trick.
- 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, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the vehicle, close the cap and check a second time that your diesel cap was never came off.
Spot at stage two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? So stop just there. Don't go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Hollingthorpe already?
Don't start your engine: that's where the short order of things begins. Do not switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel won't dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the base of your tank, just where fuel is taken from.
The attendants at BP, Asda or any forecourt will usually lend a hand to push the vehicle clear if you ask. On your own drive in Hollingthorpe? So the vehicle stays put.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the engine has already run. Come off the M1 — under a mile out of Hollingthorpe — at the next exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Wakefield, under 5 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Hollingthorpe.
When our engineers get there around Hollingthorpe, what occurs?
Wherever the vehicle has stopped, whether outside Crigglestone Dane Royd Junior and Infant School, near St James Church or at home, our van travels to it. Those replies decide the work and the price, and so our engineers ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it's run. Nobody sets off until you've heard the price by phone.
Emptying your tank comes next, then a thorough flush of your system. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own. Once the filter is cleaned — or renewed, where required — clean diesel goes in, and then the car is tested. We don't leave until it has been started and is running correctly.
If your motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are 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 an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Wrong-fuel cover is part of many insurance policies — so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Hollingthorpe and where it is
Hollingthorpe is a suburban area in West Yorkshire, situated near the River Calder at an elevation of 84 metres. Hollingthorpe lies close to the city of Wakefield, with nearby places including Hall Green, Painthorpe, and Chapelthorpe. Hollingthorpe has a population of approximately 1653 residents, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type in the area.
AdBlue drains around Hollingthorpe, and West Yorkshire beyond
Throughout WF postcodes, our teams that cover Hollingthorpe — a residential suburb — work the nearby places too, Chapelthorpe and Painthorpe included. A postcode starting WF4 3 gets the van to you fastest.
The vehicle remains put. Wherever it stands — beside Crigglestone Community Centre, on a lay-by heading to Totty Spring, on a drive — that's where it gets cleared. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Crigglestone Methodist Church.
For Hollingthorpe people, the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave the car off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it waits, anywhere in West Yorkshire.