Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Lettershendoney: Why It Happens
Stop here a minute when the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Lettershendoney. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page covers the why it happens and the ways to avoid it for good.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Diesel goes to the engine — but many current diesels driven around Lettershendoney and Derry hold a second fluid as well. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Different tanks, separate fillers. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the arrangement on a lot of motors. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in the boot instead. Diesel goes in on every filling station call-out, again and again. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less often. The mistake grows in the gap between them.
Lettershendoney: how AdBlue in the diesel tank happens
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
Haste follows from the warning. Your car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a driveway off Rock Street, or on the way home in the car park at the pub in the village.
New-to-you cars come next, too. Hire cars, new vehicles and company cars place their fillers differently, and the hand goes for the cap it used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the tip once it has started. It's a few seconds, be it in Ardmore or bang in the centre of Lettershendoney.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you tip anything, on a drive in Strathfoyle or a forecourt in Lettershendoney.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Check for it.
- The handbook shows which it is if the filler is not next to the diesel cap: the 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 outside the nearest station, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
Anywhere around County Londonderry the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Switch off after you park — level ground, engine stopped, and not in a rush by Crom Street on the verge.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap works — once you've located the filler and read it.
- The two behind a single flap? Then confirm the cap on the diesel filler is still closed ahead of raising the bottle.
- Finish once the tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; before that, pour gently using its built-in spout.
- Only after that, start the car: close the cap, check again, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Skip step five entirely.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Lettershendoney already?
Short list, then. First: your motor stays unstarted. Do not switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is sucked from — so do not top up with diesel to thin it.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it is the the nearest petrol station or the another forecourt nearby, ask the attendants to help push the vehicle clear of the pump. If you're on your own driveway around Lettershendoney, leave the vehicle where it is.
When your motor has been run already, stop safely and switch the vehicle off. Lettershendoney lies over 50 miles from the M77; there, use the first junction. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Lettershendoney is smaller work than a trip of under 5 miles towards Derry, so say.
When our technicians get there in Lettershendoney, what occurs?
Our technicians come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside the local primary school, near the centre or on your own drive. Both the work and the quote depend on three replies — which fluid, which amount, and if it's run — so our engineers ask. You get that price by phone, before anybody sets off.
Draining the tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the system. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Before we leave, our technicians fire it up and make sure that it is running properly.
Unstarted cars usually mean a half-hour job after the moment we arrive. The equipment is fine on a live filling station, and hushed enough for a driveway late at night. Nothing upfront; you settle up on the day. At the end, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. It is worth checking your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Lettershendoney itself
Lettershendoney is a locality in County Londonderry, situated inland at an elevation of 79 metres, approximately 3.7 miles from Derry. Lettershendoney has a population of around 573 people, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type. Lettershendoney is close to nearby places such as Ardmore, Goshedan, and Maydown, and is located about 378.5 miles from London.
Lettershendoney and County Londonderry: AdBlue drains across the area
Lettershendoney is a small village, and the vans that cover it also work the places near it, Goshedan and Maydown among them, across the BT postcode area. Quote a postcode that starts BT47 3, and our van arrives quickest.
The vehicle remains where it is. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street close to a street just off the centre, a lay-by on the way to the green space at the edge of the village, a driveway. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of the far end of the built-up part, ring and ask rather than guessing.
For Lettershendoney motorists, the short version
First, the cap; after that, the tip. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere in County Londonderry, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — and so leave the car off and ring 0333 366 0103.