Kippax: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Stop reading for a moment if your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and phone 0333 366 0103. In Kippax, catching it before the motor turns usually leaves a drain and a full flush where it stands. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Many modern diesels on the roads round Kippax and Ledston Luck carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. The exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the fumes to clean it, from a separate tank.
There's a filler for each tank. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled on every forecourt visit, week in, week out. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less regularly, normally from a bottle, and normally by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the mistake lives.
Kippax: how AdBlue in the diesel tank happens
It is rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Hurry follows from the warning. The vehicle tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a drive off High Street, or heading home in the car park at The White Swan.
Then, your hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old motor — since a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't.
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 tip after it has started. Mount Pleasant or the middle of Kippax: it is the same few seconds either way.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you tip anything, on a drive in Great Preston or a forecourt around Kippax.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually is not. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- On many motors, size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside your fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Look for it.
- Can't find it beside your diesel inlet? Then check below the bonnet or inside your boot — the handbook will say where.
- Whoever had it before will know. Check as you pick up a hire car or company car — from East Garforth's car park, say — rather than once the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
On the day the light comes on — anywhere it is across West Yorkshire — a routine to use.
- Switch off after you park — flat ground, motor off, and never rushed by Cross Hills at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- The two behind a single flap? Then confirm the cap on the diesel side is still closed before raising the bottle.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Before you start your car, close the cap and check again that your diesel cap was never opened off.
Discover during the second or third stage that AdBlue went in the diesel filler? That's where you stop. Step five is off limits.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Kippax?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your engine. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch the vehicle on. Filling up with diesel will not thin it: instead, AdBlue drops to the bottom of the tank, just where fuel is taken from.
Ask the staff to help push the vehicle away from the pump if you're at a forecourt — the Oakdale Garage, the Esso or anywhere else. On your own drive around Kippax? So your car stays put.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your engine has already run. Kippax sits under 3 miles from the A1(M); there, take the first exit. A short hop across Kippax is a smaller job than a run towards Leeds, under 10 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
When our technicians arrive around Kippax, what happens?
Anywhere the car has stopped, be it outside Kippax Ash Tree Primary School, beside Kippax Library or on your own drive, our van comes to it. Both the work and our quote rest on three replies — which liquid, which quantity, and whether it has run — so our technicians ask. The price comes on the call, before any van leaves.
Next: draining, then a full flush of the entire 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 comes at the end: before that, clean diesel is added, and the filter is flushed or replaced as needed. Next our technicians fire it up and check it runs smoothly before we leave.
Unstarted vehicles mostly mean a half-hour visit from arrival. The equipment is fine on a busy forecourt, and quiet enough for a residential street late at night. Your insurer will ask for the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours once this job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies — so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Kippax
Kippax is a village in West Yorkshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 72 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Kippax lies approximately 7.7 miles from Leeds and 164.6 miles from London, making it a commuter-friendly location. Kippax has nearby places of interest, including Mount Pleasant, Moor Gate, and Kippax Common, which are all within close proximity to the village. Kippax is home to a population of around 3562 residents.
Kippax and West Yorkshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Being a village, Kippax has the same vans as nearby areas — Moor Gate, Kippax Common — right through LS postcodes and the wider area beyond. Give a postcode beginning LS25 7, and the van gets there fastest.
Your car does not need to shift. Wherever it stands — near Kippax Community Hub, on a lay-by heading to The Wells Community Gardens, on a drive — that is where it is drained. Awkward to explain, like the back of St. Mary's Church? By a border? Checking is better than assuming, so ring.
For Kippax drivers, the short version
Read the cap before you pour. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it wherever it is, anywhere across West Yorkshire: switch it off then call 0333 366 0103.