Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Houghton: Why It Happens
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then set this page down a moment, leave the ignition and motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. Usually, when the engine hasn't run, it's emptied and fully rinsed where the car sits in Houghton. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
No single liquid but two: that's how plenty of modern diesels near Houghton and Wylam run, with diesel for the engine. Your exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the gas to clean them, from its own tank.
There's a filler on every tank. Many of motors share a single flap for both, while others move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled at every forecourt call-out, week in, week out. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less commonly, usually from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the mistake lives.
Houghton: how AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
Hurry follows from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a driveway off Hexham Road, or heading home in the car park at Three Tuns.
New-to-you cars come second, too. Rentals, new vehicles and company vehicles put their fillers differently, and the hand reaches for the cap it used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, after begun, carries on. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Houghton or out in Heddon-on-the-Wall.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
A few seconds is all these take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a drive in Throckley or a forecourt in Houghton.
- Read the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue caps are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally aren't.
- Many vehicles give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on many motors. Check for it.
- Can't see it next to your diesel filler? In that case look below the bonnet or in your boot — the owner's manual says where.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Wylam, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
For the day the light appears — wherever it is in Northumberland — a routine to use.
- Not in a rush on the side of Remus Avenue, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park then switch off first.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you've located the filler and read it.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, then check once more — making sure the diesel cap remained shut the whole time. Only then, start your car.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Don't go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Houghton?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your engine. Keep the ignition off too, because on many diesels it alone starts your pump. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is drawn from.
The attendants at Shell, another forecourt nearby or any forecourt will usually help pushing the vehicle away when you ask. On your own drive in Houghton? So the car remains where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your motor has already run. Come off the Central Motorway East — under 10 miles out of Houghton — at the first exit. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Newcastle upon Tyne, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Houghton.
Houghton: what happens when our engineers get there
Outside Heddon-on-the-Wall, St Andrew's Church of England Primary School, close to St Andrew's Church or on your own drive: wherever your car has stopped, our engineers come to it. Those replies settle this work and the quote, and so we ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether it's run. The price comes on the call, before any van leaves.
Then the tank is drained and your system flushed thoroughly. More than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: the crystals form, certain metals corrode, and nothing clears away on its own, however long it sits. The filter flushed or, where it must be, replaced; clean diesel in; then a test of the car. The engine is fired up next and tested to confirm it runs properly, all before our engineers go.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour once our engineers get there, provided the engine has not run — and the pumps our technicians use are fine on a busy forecourt yet quiet after dark beside a house. Nothing upfront; you settle up that day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. It's worth checking your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Houghton itself
Houghton is a small hamlet situated on the riverside in Northumberland, with a population of around 638 people. Houghton sits at an elevation of 127 metres, close to the city of Newcastle upon Tyne, which is approximately 7.8 miles away. Houghton is characterized by its semi-detached housing and is near other local places such as Heddon-on-the-Wall and Clara Vale. Houghton is located in the North East region of England, about 250.8 miles from London.
Houghton and Northumberland: AdBlue drains across the area
Clara Vale and Bank Top are among the places near Houghton, a rural hamlet, that the same vans cover, over NE postcodes. Fastest of all: quote a NE15 0 postcode to our van.
Moving the vehicle isn't needed. Anywhere it stands — near Heddon Methodist Church, in a layby en route to Slacks Plantation, on a drive — that's where it gets drained. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Hadrian's Wall, ring and ask rather than assuming.
The short version for Houghton drivers
Read the cap before you pour. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it where it stands, wherever in Northumberland: switch the vehicle off and ring 0333 366 0103.