How It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Knighton Fields
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case set this page aside a moment, keep your ignition and motor off, then phone 0333 366 0103. In Knighton Fields, finding it before your engine turns normally leaves a drain and a full flush where it stands. Here in advance? In that case the rest explains how it happens and how to prevent it ever happening.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Many modern diesels in Knighton, like those in Knighton Fields, run on two fluids; the engine gets just the diesel. Your exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the fumes to fresh them, from a separate tank.
Each tank comes with a filler of its own. Under one flap, side by side: that is the arrangement on many cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in your boot instead. Topping up your diesel side at the pump happens all the time. Rarely topped up, AdBlue normally goes in out of a bottle, poured by someone who must stop and think which cap to use. That gap is where the slip lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Knighton Fields: how it occurs
Carelessness rarely causes it. What does is three things lining up at once.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the vehicle, and letting it run dry means limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Whittier Road, perhaps outside Friar Lane & Epworth Football Club on the way home after work.
The old car's cap is where the hand goes — but a hire car, a new car or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That is a second thing: an unfamiliar vehicle.
A spouted bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, once begun, carries on. It's seconds, whether out in Aylestone Park or bang in the centre of Knighton Fields.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Look at these before pouring, at a forecourt in Knighton Fields or a driveway over in Aylestone. Seconds, that's all.
- Read the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue caps are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually aren't.
- On plenty of motors, the size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside your fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Check for it.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler is if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Leicester, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Leicestershire that is.
- Stop on level, engine off, with time to spare — never hurried on the side of Knighton Lane East.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, perhaps, but it works.
- The diesel cap stays on. When both sit under a flap, confirm it is closed before the bottle comes up.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, and check once more — confirm your diesel filler stayed closed the whole time. Only then, start the car.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Don't carry on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Knighton Fields?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with not starting the engine. The fuel pump runs on many diesels the moment the ignition goes on — so leave it off. Thinning it with more diesel won't work, because AdBlue settles to the base rather than mixing — and that is where the fuel is pulled from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it is the Gulf or the BP, ask the staff to help roll the vehicle clear of the pump. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive in Knighton Fields.
Already run? Stop when it's sensible, then turn off. Knighton Fields lies under 3 miles from the M1; on it, use the first junction. Distance matters — a short hop across Knighton Fields is a smaller job than heading under 3 miles to Leicester — so say roughly how far it went.
What occurs when our engineers turn up around Knighton Fields
The van comes to the car anywhere it stopped — your own driveway, beside Friar Lane and Epworth Football Club, or by Knighton Mead Primary Academy. Both the work and the quote rest on three replies — which liquid, which amount, and whether it's run — so we ask. On the phone call itself, you are told the price — ahead of dispatch.
Your system is then flushed thoroughly, after your tank is drained. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own. Once your filter has been cleaned — or renewed, where required — fresh diesel is added, and then your car gets tested. We do not leave until it has been started and is running correctly.
If your engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Nothing in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Knighton Fields itself
Knighton Fields is a suburban area located on the outskirts of Leicester, situated near the River Soar in Leicestershire. Knighton Fields has a mix of housing types, but is predominantly characterised by terraced homes. Knighton Fields sits at an elevation of around 61 metres, close to nearby places such as Aylestone Park and Clarendon Park.
AdBlue drains across Leicestershire, Knighton Fields included
Clarendon Park and West Knighton are among the places around Knighton Fields, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, over LE postcodes. Quickest of all: quote a LE2 6 postcode to the van.
There's no need to move the car. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Aylestone Recreation Ground, a side street close to Aylestone Leisure Centre: we drain it where it sits. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of New Aylestone Park Library (Within Leisure Centre), ring and ask rather than assuming.
Knighton Fields people: the short version
Read the cap before you pour. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it wherever it is, wherever in Leicestershire: switch the vehicle off and ring 0333 366 0103.