Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Horsley Hill: Why It Occurs
Stop here a minute when your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and phone 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, done just where the car stands around Horsley Hill, is normally what it needs when found before your engine runs. The rest of this page explains why it occurs and how to make sure it does not — useful if you are reading ahead of time.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Diesel feeds the engine — but many newer diesels seen round Horsley Hill and Westoe hold a second liquid too. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust stream and cleans it.
Each tank has a filler of its own. Under one flap, side by side: that's the arrangement on many vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in the boot instead. Diesel goes in on each filling station visit, again and again. Seldom topped up, AdBlue normally comes from a bottle, poured by someone who must stop and think what cap to use. The error lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank happen around Horsley Hill?
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the car, and letting it run dry means limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Cheviot Road, or at The Fountain on the way home after work.
Then the vehicle is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spouted bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, once started, keeps on. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Horsley Hill or out in Harton.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Cleadon Park or a forecourt in Horsley Hill, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Go by the cap, not its position.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many cars, the AdBlue one.
- Lift the flap and check for a label — many motors show what belongs in each inlet right there.
- Cannot find it next to your diesel inlet? Then check below the bonnet or inside your boot — the owner's manual will say where.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at East Boldon, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Tyne and Wear that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Highfield Road, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park then switch off first.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, yes, but it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Discover at the second or third step that the bottle went in the diesel tank? That is where you stop. Skip stage five altogether.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Horsley Hill already?
The short order of things, beginning with not starting your engine. Leave your ignition off as well, because on plenty of diesels switching it on by itself starts your pump. Thinning it with more diesel fails, since AdBlue sinks to the bottom rather than mixing — and that's where the fuel is sucked from.
The attendants at Gulf, Esso or another forecourt will usually help to push your car clear if you ask. At home in Horsley Hill? Then your car remains where it is.
Where the motor has run by now, pull over somewhere safe and turn it off. On the A194(M), under 10 miles from Horsley Hill, that means the next exit. About how far did it go? Hopping across Horsley Hill is smaller a job than a trip of under 10 miles towards Sunderland, and so say.
Our arrival in Horsley Hill, and what occurs next
By St Gregory's Catholic Primary School, South Shields, near St Lawrence the Martyr or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, we come to it. What fluid got in, the amount, and if it ran: our engineers ask because those replies set the work and quote. On the call itself, you hear the quote — ahead of dispatch.
Then the tank is cleared and your system purged thoroughly. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own. A test is at the end: before that, fresh diesel is added, and the fuel filter is flushed or changed if necessary. After that we fire it up and check it runs smoothly before we go.
Unrun vehicles usually mean a half-hour job from arrival. The equipment is fine on a busy filling station, and quiet enough for a driveway after dark. The insurer usually wants the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. It is worth looking at your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Horsley Hill
Horsley Hill is a suburban area in Tyne and Wear, situated near the coast and approximately 5.6 miles from Sunderland. Horsley Hill has a relatively low elevation of 29 metres and is characterized by semi-detached housing. Horsley Hill is part of a larger urban landscape that includes nearby places such as Harton, Cauldwell, and Harton Nook.
Horsley Hill and Tyne and Wear: AdBlue drains across the area
Cauldwell and Harton Nook are among the towns around Horsley Hill, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, throughout NE postcodes. A postcode starting NE34 6 gets our van to you fastest.
The vehicle remains where it is. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street near St Peter, a lay-by on the way to Robert Readhead Park, a drive. Assuming doesn't help behind St Peter's Church Hall, close to a border, or anywhere hard to describe; ring and ask.
Horsley Hill drivers: the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere in Tyne and Wear, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — and so leave the car off then phone 0333 366 0103.