How It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Larches
Keep the engine and ignition off and call 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Caught before your motor runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Larches. Reading before the event? In that case the rest explains how it happens and what to prevent it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of modern diesels around Riverside Docklands, as well as Larches, run on two liquids; your engine takes only the diesel. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank comes with one filler of its own. Other cars put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty more place the two together behind one flap. Diesel goes in on every filling station call-out, week in, week out. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less regularly. That gap is where the slip lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Larches: how it occurs
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Haste follows from the warning. The vehicle tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a driveway off Starrgate Drive, or heading home in the car park at Pig and Whistle.
New-to-you cars come second, as well. Rentals, new vehicles and company vehicles put their fillers in new places, and habit goes for the cap it used on the old one.
No part stops the pour once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It takes a few seconds, whether out in Lea or right in the centre of Larches.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Ingol or a forecourt around Larches, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Position can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally don't.
- The size. On plenty of motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Open the filler flap and check for a label — plenty of vehicles show which belongs in each inlet right there.
- The handbook shows where it is when the filler isn't next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at Preston, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
When the light goes on, wherever in Lancashire, follow this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Elswick Road, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park then switch off first.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" out loud as unscrewing it. It seems silly. It does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Finish once that tank fills or the bottle is empty; before that, pour slowly using the own spout.
- Shut the cap, then check again — making sure your diesel filler remained shut the whole time. After that, start your car.
Find at step two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? Then stop right there. Don't carry on to step five.
Larches: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
The short order of things, starting with no starting the motor. The fuel pump runs on many diesels the moment your ignition is switched on — and so keep it off. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is drawn from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it's the BP or the another forecourt nearby, ask the attendants to help roll your car clear of the pump. On your own drive around Larches? Then your car stays where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the motor has already run. On the M55, under 3 miles from Larches, that means the next exit. About how far did it go? Hopping across Larches is smaller work than a run of under 3 miles towards Preston, and so say.
Larches: what takes place when our engineers get there
Anywhere the vehicle has stopped, be it by Lea Community Primary School, beside Our Lady & St Bernard's Catholic Club or at home, the van travels to it. What fluid went in, the amount, and whether it ran: our engineers ask because the answers decide both work and price. The quote is given on the call, before any van leaves.
After that: a drain, then a full flush of the entire system. 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 counts more here than with petrol. The filter cleaned or, if it must be, swapped; fresh diesel in; then a check of the vehicle. Next we fire it up and confirm it runs properly before we leave.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour after our technicians get there, provided the motor has not run — and the pumps we use are safe on a live forecourt yet quiet at night outside a house. Nothing upfront; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Misfuelling cover is included in many insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Larches
Larches is a suburban area in Lancashire, situated on the riverside near Preston, with a mix of semi-detached housing and local amenities. Larches sits at a relatively low elevation of 22 metres, close to the nearby places of Lea, Ashton Bank, and Ashton-on-Ribble. Larches is located approximately 2.3 miles from Preston city centre, making it a convenient residential area for those working in the city. Larches has a population of around 6159 people, according to recent estimates.
AdBlue drains around Larches and across Lancashire
Throughout PR postcodes, our teams that cover Larches — a residential suburb — work the surrounding places too, Ashton-on-Ribble and Ashton Bank among them. Quote a postcode beginning PR2 1, and the van arrives quickest.
The vehicle remains put. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Larches Wood, a side street near Savick Library: our engineers drain the car where it stands. Assuming won't help behind Freedomcentre Church, close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe; ring and ask.
For Larches drivers, the short version
Pour nothing till you have read the cap. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it where it is, wherever in Lancashire: switch the car off and ring 0333 366 0103.