How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Howdon
Pause reading for a moment when your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then call 0333 366 0103. Normally, if your engine has not turned, it is drained and fully flushed where your car is around Howdon. The remainder of this page explains why it takes place and how to ensure it does not — handy if you're reading ahead of time.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Not one fluid but two: that's what plenty of modern diesels near Howdon and Willington Quay carry, with diesel feeding the engine. The exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the gas to fresh them, from its own tank.
Each tank has one filler of its own. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, the diesel side is topped up all the time. Much less regularly, the AdBlue side gets topped up — normally from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. It is in that gap that the error happens.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place in Howdon
Carelessness seldom causes it. Instead is three things lining up together.
On a drive off Melrose Gardens before work, or in the car park at The Mauretania on the way home: that's where the rushed top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low the vehicle warns you, and once it is empty, limp mode follows.
Next, the hand goes for the cap it knew on the old car — since a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't.
A spouted bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, after started, keeps on. Whether it happens in Willington or the middle of Howdon, it is the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A few seconds is all these take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Rosehill or a forecourt around Howdon.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue ones are often blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually do not.
- On many vehicles, the size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of cars say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says where it lives when the filler isn't next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Brockley Whins? Check with the person who drove it last before leaving, not when the light goes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
Wherever around Tyne and Wear the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Lonsdale Gardens.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" out loud while unscrewing it. It sounds daft. It works.
- Both under one flap? So confirm the cap on the diesel filler stays closed before lifting the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the vehicle, shut the cap and look again that the diesel cap never came off.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Skip stage five altogether.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Howdon?
Short order, then. First: the motor remains unstarted. Don't switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel will not weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the bottom of the tank, right where fuel is drawn from.
Ask the attendants to help push the vehicle away from the petrol pump if you are at a forecourt — the the nearest petrol station, the Esso or somewhere else. At home around Howdon? So your car remains where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the motor has already run. Come off the A194(M) — under 5 miles out of Howdon — at the first exit. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Howdon is smaller a job than a run of under 5 miles to Newcastle upon Tyne, so say.
What happens when our technicians arrive in Howdon
Our van reaches the car anywhere it has come to rest — your own drive, beside Howdon Community Centre, or outside Denbigh Community Primary School. Both the work and our quote rest on three answers — what fluid, which amount, and if it has run — so our engineers ask. You hear that price on the phone, before anybody sets off.
The system is then flushed thoroughly, after the tank is drained. With AdBlue that matters 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. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Then we fire it up and check it runs smoothly before we leave.
Using pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the motor has not run take about half an hour once we arrive. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork your insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Howdon
Howdon is a suburban area in Tyne and Wear, situated on the north bank of the River Tyne, approximately 4.9 miles from Newcastle upon Tyne. Howdon sits at an elevation of around 45 metres, with a mix of semi-detached housing and other residential properties. Howdon is close to nearby places such as Willington and West Chirton, and is part of the larger Tyneside conurbation. Howdon has a population of around 5614 people, according to recent estimates.
AdBlue drains across Tyne and Wear, Howdon included
As a residential suburb, Howdon shares its vans nearby areas — Willington Square, West Chirton — all the way through NE postcodes and the wider area around them. Fastest of all: give a NE28 0 postcode to the van.
Your car stays put. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Melrose Gardens Park, a side street close to Our Lady & St Aidan’s: our technicians drain the vehicle where it is. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of St Mary The Virgin, ring and ask rather than guessing.
In short, for Howdon motorists
Read the cap before you tip. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Leave the car switched off then call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, across Tyne and Wear.