Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Hoylake: Why It Happens
Leave your engine and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Normally, if your engine has not turned, it's emptied and fully purged where the car sits in Hoylake. Not happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page explains the reasons it takes place and the how to avoid it for good.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Diesel feeds your motor — but plenty of current diesels driven round Hoylake and West Kirby carry a second liquid as well. The exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the gas to clean them, from a separate tank.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Other vehicles keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot more have the two side by side behind one flap. Diesel gets filled on every forecourt call-out, again and again. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less regularly. The mistake lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank happens around Hoylake
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
On a driveway off Elm Grove before work, or in the car park at The Ship Inn on the way home: that is where the rushed top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low the car tells you, and once it's empty, limp mode follows.
Then your car is strange. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the pour after it has started. It's seconds, whether in Meols or right in the centre of Hoylake.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Be it a Hoylake forecourt or a drive out in Newton, spend a couple of seconds on these before any goes in.
- Read the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue caps are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally are not.
- On many cars, the size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Look inside your fuel flap: plenty of cars carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler is if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park at Manor Road? Check with the person who drove the vehicle last before you set off, not when the light goes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Merseyside that is.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Trinity Road.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, perhaps, but it does the trick.
- Both behind one flap? So make sure the lid on your diesel side is still closed before raising the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the vehicle, shut the cap and look again that the diesel cap never opened off.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Stage five stays out.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Hoylake?
Short order, then. Top of it: the engine remains off. Do not switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is sucked from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it's the Esso or the Morrisons, ask the attendants to help push your car clear of the petrol pump. If you are on your own driveway around Hoylake, leave it where it stands.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Hoylake sits under 3 miles from the Moreton Spur; on it, take the next exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Liverpool, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Hoylake.
Hoylake: what takes place when our technicians arrive
Our technicians come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Hoylake Holy Trinity CofE Primary School, close to Hoylake Evangelical Church or on your own drive. Our engineers ask what went in, about how much, and if it has run, since those answers decide the work and our price. That price is given over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
Draining your tank comes next, then a thorough flush of the system. More than with petrol, it matters here: the crystals build up, some metals corrode, and none of it clears away on its own, no matter how long it is left. A test is last: before that, clean diesel goes in, and the filter is flushed or replaced as needed. The engine is fired up next and tested to be sure it runs smoothly, all before our engineers head off.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour once our engineers arrive, as long as the motor has not run — and the pumps we use are safe on a live forecourt and quiet at night outside a house. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork your insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. While we travel, take a look at your insurance documents; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Hoylake, briefly
Hoylake is a coastal town in Merseyside, situated on the north-western coast of England, approximately 8 miles from Liverpool. Hoylake has a population of around 8798 people and is characterised by its semi-detached housing stock. Hoylake sits at a low elevation of 11 metres above sea level, looking out over the Irish Sea. Hoylake is near to other local places such as Meols and Dove Point.
AdBlue drains across Merseyside, Hoylake included
Hoylake is a coastal town, and our teams that cover it also work the places near it, Dove Point and Grange among them, across the CH postcode area. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting CH47 3.
The car does not need to move. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Hoylake Coastal Green, a side street close to St Luke's Methodist Church: our technicians drain the vehicle where it is. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of St Luke's Hoylake, ring and ask instead of assuming.
In short, for Hoylake motorists
Read the cap before you pour. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere across Merseyside, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless — and so leave the vehicle off then call 0333 366 0103.