How It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Land Gate
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and your ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, done right where your vehicle sits around Land Gate, is usually all it takes if caught before the engine runs. The rest of this page explains why it occurs and how to ensure it does not — useful if you're reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Diesel feeds the engine — but plenty of current diesels driven about Land Gate and Downall Green carry a second fluid too. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, and there a spray cleans the gas.
There's a filler on each tank. Under one flap, side by side: that is the layout on many vehicles. On others, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in the boot instead. The diesel side is fuelled at the pump all the time. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less commonly. That gap is where the mistake lives.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank happen in Land Gate?
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Haste follows from the warning. Your car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a drive off Landgate Lane, or heading home in the car park at The Park Hotel.
Next, the hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old car — since a rental car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not.
A spouted bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, once started, carries on. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Land Gate or out in Rose Hill.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Check these before pouring, at a forecourt in Land Gate or a drive out in Hawkley. A few seconds, that's all.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many cars, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside the fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Look for it.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler sits if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Bryn.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Greater Manchester that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Wigan Road, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park then switch off properly.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before starting your car, close the cap and look again that your diesel cap never opened off.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Stage five stays off limits.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Land Gate?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with not starting the motor. Don't switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is drawn from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it is the Shell or the Sainsbury's, ask the staff to help roll the car away from the pump. Your own drive around Land Gate is where it stays.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the engine has already run. The next exit is where to leave if you're on the Bryn Spur, under a mile from Land Gate. A short hop across Land Gate is a smaller job than a run towards Salford, under 15 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
Our arrival around Land Gate, and what takes place next
Outside Bryn St Peter's CofE Primary School, close to Park Lane Unitarian Chapel or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, we come to it. Both the work and our quote depend on three answers — what liquid, what amount, and if it's run — so we ask. You hear that price by phone, before anyone heads out.
The system is then purged thoroughly, after the tank is drained. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. A test is last: before that, fresh diesel is added, and your filter is cleaned or replaced as needed. We don't go until it has been started and is running correctly.
Using pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your motor hasn't run take roughly half an hour once our technicians arrive. Nothing in advance; you settle up that day. At the end, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. It's worth checking your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Land Gate and where it is
Land Gate is a village situated on the riverside in Greater Manchester, with a relatively low elevation of 58 metres. Land Gate lies near several other small communities, including Rose Hill, Bryn, and North Ashton, and is located approximately 14.8 miles from the city of Salford. Land Gate has a population of around 1437 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing.
AdBlue drains across Greater Manchester, Land Gate included
Land Gate is a village, and the teams that cover it also work the towns around it, Bryn and North Ashton among them, across the WN postcode area. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting WN4 0.
Moving the car isn't necessary. Anywhere it stands — beside The Spirit of Wigan, on a layby en route to Edmund Collins Park, on a drive — that is where it gets emptied. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Bryn Baptist Church.
For Land Gate people, the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it where it stands, wherever around Greater Manchester: keep the car off and ring 0333 366 0103.