AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Knottingley: How It Occurs and How to Avoid It
Leave your motor and ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. In Knottingley, finding it before your motor runs normally leaves draining and a thorough flush on the spot. The remainder of this page covers why it happens and how to ensure it doesn't — useful if you are reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Not one fluid but two: that is what many newer diesels around Knottingley and Sutton run, with diesel feeding your engine. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it.
Every tank has a filler of its own. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, the diesel side gets filled all the time. Far less frequently, the AdBlue side gets topped up — mostly from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. That gap is where the error lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place around Knottingley
It is seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out completely, your vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Weeland Road before work, or in the car park outside Knottingley Conservative Club on the way home.
Next, the hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old motor — because a hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
A spout-topped bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, once started, carries on. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Knottingley or out in England Lane.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Whether a Knottingley forecourt or a driveway out in Ferrybridge, spend a couple of seconds on these before anything is poured in.
- Check the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually aren't.
- On plenty of cars, the size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows where it lives when your filler is not next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at the nearest station, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
For the day the warning comes on — wherever you are around West Yorkshire — a routine to use.
- Pull in somewhere level, motor off, with time to spare — never hurried on the side of Hill Top.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" aloud while unscrewing it. It sounds silly. It works.
- The diesel cap remains on. When the two share a flap, confirm it is shut before the bottle comes up.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, and check again — making sure the diesel cap stayed shut the whole time. Only then, start your car.
Discover during the second or third stage that the bottle went in the wrong filler? That is where you stop. Don't go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Knottingley?
Brief order, then. First: your engine remains off. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels as soon as your ignition is switched on — and so keep it off. Diluting it with more diesel won't work, since AdBlue settles to the bottom rather than mixing — and that is where the fuel is pulled from.
At a forecourt — Morrisons, Esso or another — the staff will normally help roll the car clear, when you ask. At home in Knottingley? Then the vehicle remains where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your engine has already run. Come off the M62 — under 3 miles out of Knottingley — at the first exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Wakefield, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Knottingley.
When we arrive around Knottingley, what happens?
Our technicians come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside St Botolphs CE Academy, near Knottingley Town Hall or on your own drive. Which liquid was put in, the quantity, and if it ran: our technicians ask because those answers set the work and price. The quote comes on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
Draining your tank comes next, followed by a full flush of your system. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and none of that washes away unaided. That is why it counts more. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Before we leave, our engineers start the car and check that it's running correctly.
Unrun cars usually need a half-hour job after arrival. The kit is safe on a live forecourt, and hushed enough for a residential street after dark. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents an insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Knottingley, for a moment
Knottingley is a town in West Yorkshire, situated on the banks of the River Aire at an elevation of 17 metres. Knottingley lies approximately 10.5 miles from Wakefield and 159.2 miles from London, with nearby places including England Lane, Broomhill, and Ferrybridge Hill. Knottingley has a population of around 10,273 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Knottingley is characterized by its riverside setting, which has influenced its development over time.
AdBlue drains across West Yorkshire, Knottingley included
As a riverside town, Knottingley shares its vans nearby places — Broomhill, Ferrybridge Hill — right through WF postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. A postcode starting WF11 9 gets our van to you fastest.
The vehicle remains where it is. Anywhere it stands — near Knottingley War Memorial, in a lay-by en route to Canal Park, on a drive — that's where it gets emptied. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of St Botolph's Parish Hall.
In short, for Knottingley drivers
Read the cap before you pour. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Leave it switched off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, throughout West Yorkshire.