How It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Kirby Muxloe
Leave the engine and ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. In Kirby Muxloe, finding it before the motor turns usually leaves draining and a full flush where it stands. Not happened yet? Below, the page covers the reasons it happens and the ways to prevent it altogether.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Many current diesels on the roads around Kirby Muxloe and Braunstone Frith carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, and there a spray cleans the gas.
Each tank has its own filler. Some motors keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others place the two together under one flap. Topping up your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less regularly. Mistakes happen in that gap between the two.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Kirby Muxloe: how it occurs
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out completely, the car drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Princess Drive before work, or in the car park outside Royal Oak on the way home.
Next, the hand goes for the cap it knew on the old car — since a rental car, a new car or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
A spout-topped bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, after started, carries on. It takes seconds, whether out in Kirby Fields or bang in the heart of Kirby Muxloe.
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 in Kirby Muxloe, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Read the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally are not.
- Many motors give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says where it lives if your filler is not next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Whoever had it before will know. Check as you pick up a rental or company car — from Narborough's car park, perhaps — not when the warning appears.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Leicestershire that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Wentworth Green, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park and switch off first.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, yes, but it does the trick.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the car, shut the cap and look again that the diesel cap was never opened off.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Never go on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Kirby Muxloe already?
Short order, then. Top of it: your engine stays off. Do not switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Thinning it with extra diesel fails, because AdBlue sinks to the base instead of blending — and that is where your fuel is drawn from.
On a forecourt — Shell, Esso or any other — the staff will usually help push the vehicle away, if you ask. If you're on your own driveway in Kirby Muxloe, leave the vehicle where it stands.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your engine has already run. The next exit means the place to leave when you are on the M1, under a mile from Kirby Muxloe. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Kirby Muxloe is less a job than a trip of under 5 miles to Leicester, and so tell us.
Kirby Muxloe: what happens when our engineers arrive
Anywhere the car has stopped, whether by Kirby Muxloe Primary School, beside Kirby Muxloe Library or on your own drive, our van comes to it. The replies settle this work and the quote, so our engineers ask what got in, about how much, and if it's run. On the call itself, you hear our price — ahead of dispatch.
Then that tank is cleared and the fuel system cleaned thoroughly. More than with petrol, it matters here: the crystals build up, some metals are attacked, and nothing clears out unaided, however long it sits. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Before we go, our technicians fire it up and confirm that it is running smoothly.
With pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where the motor hasn't run need about half an hour after our technicians are there. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork your insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Wrong-fuel cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — so use the wait to check yours.
About Kirby Muxloe, briefly
Kirby Muxloe is a village in Leicestershire, situated approximately 4 miles east of Leicester city centre, with Kirby Fields and Leicester Forest East nearby. Kirby Muxloe sits at an elevation of around 85 metres, in a predominantly semi-detached residential area. Kirby Muxloe has a population of around 1481 people, and is located near the village of Ratby. Kirby Muxloe is about 90 miles northwest of London, making it a commuter village with easy access to the capital.
AdBlue drains around Kirby Muxloe and across Leicestershire
Over LE postcodes, our vans covering Kirby Muxloe — a rural village — work the nearby spots too, Ratby and Leicester Forest East included. Quickest of all: give a LE9 2 postcode for the van.
No need to shift your car. We drain it where it is — a side street close to Kirby Muxloe Village Hall, a lay-by on the way to Kirby Muxloe Golf Club, a driveway. Guessing doesn't help behind Kirby Muxloe Bowls Club, on a border, or somewhere awkward to describe; ring and check.
The short version for Kirby Muxloe people
Before you tip, read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Keep it off then call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, throughout Leicestershire.