Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Kirby Fields: Why It Occurs
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and your ignition off and call 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, carried out just where your vehicle sits around Kirby Fields, is usually what it takes if found before the motor runs. Not happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page explains the reasons it happens and the ways to prevent it altogether.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Diesel goes to the motor — yet many current diesels driven about Kirby Fields and Ratby carry another fluid too. Your exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the gas to clean it, from its own tank.
There is a filler for every tank. Some cars keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others place the two together behind one flap. At the pump, your diesel side is topped up all the time. Seldom filled, AdBlue normally goes in out of a bottle, poured by a driver who must stop and think what filler to use. Mistakes happen in that gap between them.
Kirby Fields: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
Carelessness seldom causes it. Instead is three things lining up at once.
Hurry comes from the warning. The vehicle tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a driveway off Stamford Road, or on the way home in the car park outside The Red Cow.
Unfamiliar cars are second, too. Rentals, new vehicles and company vehicles put their fillers in new places, and habit goes for the cap used on the old one.
No part stops the tip after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It takes a few seconds, be it out in Kirby Muxloe or bang in the centre of Kirby Fields.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Leicester Forest West or a forecourt around Kirby Fields, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by the diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The previous driver will know. Check as you pick up a hire car or fleet car — from Narborough's car park, say — rather than once the light appears.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
The day the light comes on, wherever in Leicestershire, use this routine.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Towers Drive.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the vehicle on.
- Finish once that tank fills or the bottle runs dry; until then, pour gently using its own spout.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Spot at stage two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? So stop right there. Don't go on to stage five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Kirby Fields?
Brief order, then. First: the motor remains off. Leave the ignition off as well, since on many diesels it alone runs the pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is pulled from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it's the Shell or the Esso, ask the staff to help roll your car clear of the pump. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive in Kirby Fields.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. The next exit means the place to come off if you are on the M1, under a mile from Kirby Fields. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Kirby Fields is less work than a trip of under 5 miles towards Leicester, so say.
Kirby Fields: what happens when our technicians turn up
Our van comes to the vehicle wherever it stopped — your own driveway, near Kirby Muxloe Village Hall, or by Kirby Muxloe Primary School. The answers settle this work and the price, so our technicians ask what got in, roughly how much, and if it has run. On the phone call itself, you hear our price — before anything else.
Emptying the tank comes next, then a full flush of the system. Much more than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: the crystals build up, certain metals corrode, and nothing washes out unaided, no matter how long it sits. A test is at the end: before that, fresh diesel is added, and your filter is cleaned or changed as needed. Before leaving, our technicians fire it up and confirm that it is running smoothly.
Unrun cars usually mean a half-hour visit from the moment we arrive. The kit is fine on a live filling station, and hushed enough for a residential street late at night. The insurer will ask for the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. It is worth looking at your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Kirby Fields and where it is
Kirby Fields is a suburban area located near Leicester in the East Midlands region of England, sitting at an elevation of 97 metres. Kirby Fields is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock and is situated close to nearby places such as Kirby Muxloe and Leicester Forest East. Kirby Fields is a relatively small community with a population of approximately 2761 residents, living in a quiet area on the outskirts of Leicester. Kirby Fields is about 4 miles from Leicester city centre and around 90 miles from London.
AdBlue drains in Kirby Fields and across Leicestershire
Being a residential suburb, Kirby Fields shares its vans nearby places — Leicester Forest East, Braunstone Frith — all the way through LE postcodes and the wider area beyond. Fastest of all: give a LE9 2 postcode for our van.
Moving your car is not needed. Wherever it stands — beside Kirby Muxloe Bowls Club, in a lay-by heading to Kirby Muxloe Golf Club, at home — that's where it is emptied. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Kirby Muxloe Library.
The short version for Kirby Fields motorists
Pour no AdBlue until you've read the cap. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it wherever it is, anywhere around Leicestershire: switch it off then call 0333 366 0103.