AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Howden-le-Wear: Why It Happens and How to Stop It
Pause here for a moment if your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Usually, when the motor has not run, it's drained and thoroughly purged where the car sits in Howden-le-Wear. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it does not.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
No single liquid but two: that's how many newer diesels near Howden-le-Wear and High Grange carry, with diesel for the motor. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust gas to clean it.
Each tank comes with a filler of its own. Many of vehicles have a single flap for both, while some put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in on every forecourt visit, week in, week out. Seldom topped up, AdBlue usually goes in out of a bottle, poured by someone who must stop and think what filler to use. It is in that gap that the error happens.
Howden-le-Wear: how AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
Hurry follows from the warning. Your car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a drive off High Street, or on the way home in the car park outside The Australian.
Unfamiliar motors come next, as well. Hire cars, new vehicles and company cars place their fillers in new places, and the hand reaches for the cap used on the old one.
Lastly, the bottle goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in just as easily, and once the tip begins, nothing halts it. It's seconds, whether out in Low Beechburn or bang in the centre of Howden-le-Wear.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A couple of seconds is all these take — so check them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Crook or a forecourt around Howden-le-Wear.
- Read the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue ones are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually aren't.
- On plenty of cars, the size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside the fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on many cars. Check for it.
- The handbook shows where it lives when the filler is not next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Ask 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 Bishop Auckland.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Durham that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Bridge Street, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park and switch off properly.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" aloud while unscrewing it. It sounds silly. It works.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or 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.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Stage five stays off limits.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Howden-le-Wear?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with not starting your engine. Do not switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Topping up with diesel will not dilute it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of that tank, right where fuel is drawn from.
Ask the staff to help push the car clear of the petrol pump if you're on a forecourt — the the nearest petrol station, the Jet or somewhere else. At home around Howden-le-Wear? Then the vehicle stays put.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Howden-le-Wear sits under 10 miles from the A1(M); on it, use the first junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Durham, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Howden-le-Wear.
Howden-le-Wear: what happens when we get there
Our van reaches the car wherever it stopped — your own drive, near Howden-le-Wear War Memorial, or outside Howden-le-Wear Primary School. Our technicians ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether it's run, since the replies settle the work and the quote. You get that price by phone, before anyone sets off.
Next: draining, then a full flush of the whole system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. The engine is started next and tested to be sure it runs correctly, all before our engineers leave.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour after our technicians arrive, provided your engine hasn't run — and the pumps our technicians use are fine on a live forecourt yet quiet after dark outside a house. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork your insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. While we travel, take a look at your insurance documents; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Howden-le-Wear
Howden-le-Wear is a village in County Durham, situated on the riverside in the North East of England. Howden-le-Wear has a population of around 1175 people and is characterized by its predominance of terraced housing. Howden-le-Wear sits at an elevation of 117 metres, approximately 8.8 miles from the city of Durham. Howden-le-Wear is located near other small settlements, including Low Beechburn, High Beechburn, and North Bitchburn.
AdBlue drains across Durham, Howden-le-Wear included
Howden-le-Wear is a village, and the teams that cover it also work the places near it, High Beechburn and North Bitchburn among them, across the DL postcode area. A postcode starting DL15 8 gets the van to you fastest.
Moving the vehicle is not necessary. Anywhere it sits — beside Howden-le-Wear Methodist Church, in a layby heading to Jubilee Park, on a drive — that is where it is emptied. Guessing doesn't help behind Howden-le-Wear Community Centre, on a border, or somewhere awkward to pin down; phone and ask.
For Howden-le-Wear drivers, the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it where it is, anywhere around Durham: keep the vehicle off and ring 0333 366 0103.