Kirkbarrow: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Leave the motor and ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. In Kirkbarrow, finding it before the motor turns normally means a drain and a thorough flush where it stands. Nothing happened yet? Below, the rest of the page covers the why it takes place and the how to prevent it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel goes to your motor — but plenty of newer diesels driven around Kirkbarrow and Heron Hill carry another fluid too. Your exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the gas to fresh them, from its own tank.
Each tank has a filler of its own. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the layout on a lot of vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. Filling your diesel side at the pump happens constantly. Much less regularly, the AdBlue side is filled — mostly from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. Mistakes happen in the gap between the two.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank take place in Kirkbarrow?
It is seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a driveway off Anchorite Fields before work, or in the car park at Ring O' Bells heading home: that's where the rushed top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and once it's empty, limp mode follows.
Then, the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old motor — since a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
No part halts the pour once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Kirkbarrow or out in The Lound.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Whether a Kirkbarrow forecourt or a drive out in Sandylands, take a couple of seconds over these before anything is poured in.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Go by the cap, not its position.
- Plenty of motors give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Look inside your fuel flap: many motors have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- Cannot find it next to your diesel inlet? In that case look beneath the bonnet or inside the boot — the owner's manual will say where.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park at Kendal? Ask whoever drove the car last before you set off, not once the light goes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
On the day the light appears — wherever you are around Cumbria — a routine to follow.
- Pull in somewhere level, engine off, with time in hand — never hurried on the side of Chapel Lane.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you have found the filler and read the cap.
- The diesel cap stays on. When both share a flap, make sure it is shut before the bottle comes up.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start your car, close the cap and check a second time that the diesel cap never opened off.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Stage five is off limits.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Kirkbarrow?
Brief order, then. Top of that: the engine remains unstarted. Keep the ignition off too, since on plenty of diesels switching it on alone starts your fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is drawn from.
The attendants at Shell, Asda or any forecourt will normally help pushing the car away if you ask. If you are on your own drive around Kirkbarrow, leave it where it is.
Already started? Pull over once it's sensible, then switch off. Leave the M6 — under 5 miles out of Kirkbarrow — at the next junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Lancaster, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Kirkbarrow.
What takes place when our technicians turn up in Kirkbarrow
Outside Ghyllside Primary School, close to Salvation Army or on your own drive: wherever your car has stopped, we come to it. We ask what went in, about how much, and if it's run, since those answers determine this work and the quote. You get that price on the phone, before anybody sets off.
Then that tank is emptied and the system rinsed thoroughly. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and neither washes out unaided. That is why it matters more. After the filter has been flushed — or renewed, where required — clean diesel goes in, and finally the vehicle is tested. Before we leave, our engineers fire it up and make sure that it is running properly.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour once we arrive, as long as the motor has not run — and the pumps we use are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet after dark beside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Kirkbarrow, for a moment
Kirkbarrow is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Cumbria, with a mix of terraced housing and other residential properties. Kirkbarrow sits at an elevation of 57 metres, close to the nearby places of The Lound and Aikrigg. Kirkbarrow is located near the city of Lancaster, which is approximately 19 miles away. Kirkbarrow has a population of around 7555 people, making it a moderately sized community.
AdBlue drains across Cumbria, Kirkbarrow included
As a residential suburb, Kirkbarrow has the same vans as surrounding places — Kendal, Aikrigg — right across LA postcodes and the surrounding area around them. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting LA9 5.
Your car does not need to shift. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Bowling Fell, a side street close to Kendal Squash Club: our technicians drain the car where it stands. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Bishop Blaize Inn? Close to a border? Asking beats assuming, and so phone.
Kirkbarrow people: the short version
Pour no AdBlue until you have read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Leave the car switched off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, across Cumbria.