Lazenby: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Keep the engine and ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Usually, when the motor hasn't run, it's drained and thoroughly rinsed where your vehicle sits in Lazenby. Here in advance? In that case what follows covers why it comes about and how to prevent it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
No single liquid but two: that is how plenty of newer diesels around Lazenby and California carry, with diesel feeding your engine. The exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the gas to clean it, from a separate tank.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, side by side: that is the arrangement on many cars. On others, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in your boot instead. Diesel gets filled on each forecourt call-out, again and again. Far less often, the AdBlue side is topped up — mostly from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. The error lives in that gap.
Lazenby: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
Carelessness seldom causes it. What does is three things lining up at once.
On a driveway off Queen Street before work, or in the car park at the pub in the village on the way home: that's where the hurried top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low your car warns you, and once it's empty, limp mode follows.
Then the car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spouted bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, after begun, keeps on. Whether it takes place in Lackenby or the middle of Lazenby, it is the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Grangetown or a forecourt around Lazenby, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- The size. On plenty of cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Look inside your fuel flap: many motors have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says where it is when your filler is not next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The previous driver knows. Check as you collect a rental or fleet car — at South Bank's car park, say — rather than when the light appears.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
When the light goes on, wherever across North Yorkshire, follow this routine.
- Switch off once parked — flat ground, motor stopped, and not in a rush by Eston Road at the roadside.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly. It does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where both sit under a flap, make sure it's shut before the bottle comes up.
- Stop once the tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; until then, pour slowly through its own spout.
- Only then, start the vehicle: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Spot at stage two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? So stop right there. Leave out stage five entirely.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Lazenby already?
Short order, then. First: the motor remains off. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels as soon as the ignition is switched on — so keep it off. Diluting it with extra diesel fails, because AdBlue sinks to the base instead of mixing — and that's where your fuel is pulled from.
On a forecourt — the nearest petrol station, Shell or any other — the attendants will normally help push the vehicle away, if you ask. Your own driveway around Lazenby is where it stays.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. On the A1(M), under 25 miles from Lazenby, that means the next junction. Mileage matters — a quick hop across Lazenby is a smaller job than heading under 25 miles towards Durham — so say about how far it went.
What happens when our engineers get there around Lazenby
The van comes to the vehicle wherever it has come to rest — your own driveway, near Wilton Castle, or by Wilton Primary Academy. Both the work and our price depend on three answers — which fluid, which quantity, and if it has run — so we ask. The quote comes on the call, before any van leaves.
Draining that tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the system. More than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: the crystals build up, certain metals are attacked, and none of it washes away on its own, however long it sits. Filter flushed or, if needed, replaced; fresh diesel in; then a test of your vehicle. The engine is started next and checked to be sure it runs correctly, all before our engineers go.
Using pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where your engine has not run take about half an hour once our engineers arrive. Nothing upfront; you settle up on the day. At the end, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. It is worth checking your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Lazenby itself
Lazenby is a small village in North Yorkshire, situated inland at an elevation of 34 metres, with terraced housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Lazenby lies near the villages of Lackenby and Wilton, and is approximately 23.5 miles from the city of Durham. Lazenby is also within a reasonable distance of larger urban areas, while still being far from London at 215.5 miles away. Lazenby has a population of around 811 residents.
AdBlue drains around Lazenby, and North Yorkshire beyond
As a rural village, Lazenby has the same vans as surrounding areas — Wilton, Wilton Village — right through TS postcodes and the wider area beyond. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting TS6 8.
The vehicle doesn't need to move. The drain takes place right there, be it a driveway, a road near St Cuthbert, or a lay-by towards Wilton Golf Course. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Eston Beacon.
In short, for Lazenby motorists
Tip no AdBlue till you have read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Leave it switched off then phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, across North Yorkshire.