AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Huyton: Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and your ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Huyton. Here in advance? Then the rest explains how it happens and how to prevent it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Not one fluid but two: that's what many modern diesels near Huyton and Huyton Quarry carry, with diesel feeding the engine. Your exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the fumes to fresh them, from a separate tank.
Each tank has its own filler. Plenty of cars share a single flap for the two, whereas others put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is topped up at the pump all the time. Much less frequently, the AdBlue side gets filled — mostly from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. It's in the gap that the mistake lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Huyton: how it occurs
Carelessness rarely causes it. Instead is three things lining up at once.
On a drive off Huyton Lane before work, or in the car park outside The Barker's Brewery on the way home: that is where the rushed top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low the vehicle tells you, and once it's gone, limp mode follows.
Next, your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old motor — since a hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not.
Lastly, the bottle fits: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in just as easily, and after the tip begins, no part stops it. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Huyton or out in Huyton with Roby.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Roby or a forecourt in Huyton, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually do not.
- Many cars give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler sits if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Ask when you collect a rental or company car — at the nearest station's car park, say — not once the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
Anywhere across Merseyside the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Stop on level, engine off, with time to spare — not hurried on the side of Marshfield Close.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- The diesel cap stays on. When the two sit under a flap, confirm it is shut before lifting the bottle.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start your car, shut the cap and look a second time that the diesel cap never came off.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Step five stays off limits.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Huyton?
Short list, then. First: the engine stays off. Don't switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is pulled from — so do not top up with diesel to thin it.
Ask the staff to help push the car clear of the petrol pump if you are on a forecourt — the Asda, the Shell or anywhere else. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway in Huyton.
When your engine has been run by now, pull over somewhere safe then turn it off. The next exit is where to leave when you are on the M57, under a mile from Huyton. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Liverpool, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Huyton.
Our arrival in Huyton, and what occurs next
By St Aidan's Catholic Primary School, near St Michael's Church or on your own driveway: wherever the vehicle has stopped, we come to it. Both the work and the quote depend on three answers — what liquid, what quantity, and whether it's run — so our technicians ask. You hear that quote by phone, before anybody heads out.
Then that tank is cleared and the fuel system cleaned thoroughly. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and neither washes away unaided. That is why it matters more. Filter flushed or, if it must be, swapped; fresh diesel in; then a check of the car. We do not leave until it has been fired up and is running smoothly.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour once we get there, as long as your motor hasn't run — and the pumps our engineers use are fine on a busy forecourt yet quiet at night beside a house. No money in advance; you settle up that day. At the end, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. Before we get there, take a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Huyton, for a moment
Huyton is a suburban area in Merseyside, situated near the River Alt and approximately 5.9 miles from Liverpool. Huyton has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are predominant, and the area is relatively low-lying at an elevation of 36 metres. Huyton is part of the larger Huyton with Roby area, which also includes Huyton Park and Longview. Huyton is home to around 5340 residents, according to recent estimates.
AdBlue drains about Huyton, and Merseyside beyond
Huyton is a residential suburb, and our teams that cover it also work the towns near it, Huyton Park and Longview among them, across the L postcode area. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting L36 7.
The vehicle doesn't need to move. Anywhere it stands — beside St Aidan of Lindisfarne, on a layby heading to King George V Memorial Playing Fields, on a drive — that's where it is drained. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Stuart Sutcliffe grave.
The short version for Huyton drivers
Always, the cap; after that, the tip. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Leave the car off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, throughout Merseyside.