Huntington: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Leave the engine and ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. A drain plus a thorough flush, carried out just where your vehicle stands around Huntington, is normally what it takes when found before the engine runs. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page explains the reasons it occurs and the how to avoid it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Many modern diesels around Boughton, like those in Huntington, run on two fluids; the motor takes only the diesel. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, and there spraying cleans the gas.
There's a filler on every tank. Other motors put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others have the two together behind one flap. Diesel goes in at each filling station visit, again and again. The AdBlue side is topped up far less frequently, usually from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. It's in that gap that the mistake lives.
Huntington: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
It is seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from your car, and letting it run dry leads to limp mode — so a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Campion Close, or at Rake and Pikel on the way home that evening.
Unfamiliar vehicles come next, too. Rentals, new cars and company vehicles put their fillers differently, and habit goes for the cap used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, once started, carries on. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Huntington or out in Dee Banks.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Look at these first, on a forecourt around Huntington or a drive over in Christleton. A few seconds, that's all.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally isn't. Read it rather than going by position.
- Plenty of motors give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on many vehicles. Look for it.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler is if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- The previous driver will know. Check when you pick up a hire car or company car — at Chester's car park, say — rather than once the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
Anywhere around Cheshire the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Columbine Close, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park and switch off properly.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, perhaps, but it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave it on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the car, shut the cap and look a second time that the diesel cap never opened off.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Don't go on to stage five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Huntington?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your motor. Don't switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
On a forecourt — Sainsbury's, Asda or another — the attendants will usually help roll the vehicle clear, when you ask. Your own driveway around Huntington is the place it should stay.
Already started? Stop when it's safe, then switch off. The next junction is the place to come off when you're on the M53, under 3 miles from Huntington. A short hop across Huntington is a smaller job than a run towards Chester, under 3 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
Huntington: what happens when our engineers get there
The van comes to the car wherever it has come to rest — your own driveway, near Huntington Village Hall, or by Huntington Community Primary School. Both the work and the price rest on three replies — what liquid, what amount, and if it has run — so our engineers ask. You hear that price by phone, before anyone heads out.
Emptying the tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of your system. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. Testing is at the end: before that, clean diesel goes in, and the filter is cleaned or replaced as needed. Your engine is started next and checked to make sure it runs smoothly, all before we go.
If the motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Before we get there, have a look at your insurance documents; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Huntington and where it is
Huntington is a suburban area located on the outskirts of Chester in Cheshire, England, sitting at an elevation of 21 metres near the River Dee. Huntington is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock and is situated close to nearby places such as Dee Banks, Boughton Heath, and Handbridge. Huntington has a population of approximately 3128 residents and is about 1.5 miles from Chester city centre. Huntington benefits from its riverside setting, with the city of Chester and its amenities within easy reach.
Huntington and Cheshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout CH postcodes, our teams that cover Huntington — a residential suburb — work the surrounding locations too, Handbridge and Boughton Heath among them. A postcode starting CH3 6 gets the van to you fastest.
No need to move your car. Draining happens on the spot, whether a driveway, a road by St Lukes, or a layby towards Jubilee Field. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of War Memorial, ring and ask rather than assuming.
Huntington people: the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere across Cheshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — and so leave the car off and phone 0333 366 0103.