Lindale: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and your ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. Normally, if your motor hasn't turned, it is emptied and fully flushed where the vehicle sits in Lindale. Not happened yet? Below, the page covers the why it takes place and the how to avoid it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Many newer diesels around Low Newton, as well as Lindale, carry on two fluids; your motor takes only your diesel. Your exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the fumes to fresh it, from a separate tank.
Each tank has a filler of its own. Other motors put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others place the two together behind one flap. Diesel gets filled at every forecourt call-out, week in, week out. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less regularly, usually from a bottle, and usually by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. It's in the gap that the mistake lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Lindale: how it occurs
Carelessness seldom causes it. What does is three things lining up together.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from the vehicle, and running out means limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Smithy Hill, or outside The Royal Oak on the way home after work.
Next, your hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old car — because a rental car, a new car or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
A spouted bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, after started, keeps on. It's a few seconds, whether in Hampsfield or right in the centre of Lindale.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in High Newton or a forecourt in Lindale, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Trust the cap, not its position.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on many cars, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says which it is when the filler isn't next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Whoever had it before will know. Check when you collect a rental or fleet car — at Grange-Over-Sands's car park, perhaps — not when the warning appears.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
On the day the warning comes on — anywhere you are across Cumbria — a routine to use.
- Pull in on level, engine off, with time to spare — never rushing on the side of Back O' The Fell Road.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew it. It seems silly. 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.
- Stop once that tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; until then, tip gently through its built-in spout.
- Shut the cap, and look again — confirm the diesel cap remained closed throughout. Only then, start the car.
Discover during the second or third stage that the bottle went in the wrong filler? That is where you stop. Don't carry on to stage five.
Lindale: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with no starting your engine. Do not switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Thinning it with extra diesel fails, since AdBlue sinks to the bottom instead of mixing — and that is where your fuel is sucked from.
At a forecourt — BP, Esso or any other — the attendants will usually help push the vehicle clear, if you ask. Your own driveway in Lindale is the place it should stay.
Already run? Stop once it is sensible, then turn off. Lindale sits under 10 miles from the M6; there, use the first exit. About how far did it go? Hopping across Lindale is less work than a run of under 15 miles to Lancaster, so say.
What occurs when our engineers turn up around Lindale
Anywhere the car has stopped, whether outside Lindale CofE Primary School, near Lindale Village Hall or at home, our van travels to it. The replies determine this work and our price, so our engineers ask what got in, about how much, and whether it has run. On the call itself, you are told the quote — ahead of dispatch.
Emptying your tank comes next, followed by a full flush of the fuel system. More than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: the crystals build up, some metals are attacked, and none of that washes out on its own, no matter how long it is left. After the fuel filter is flushed — or replaced, if needed — fresh diesel goes in, and then the car is tested. After that we start the engine and make sure it runs correctly before leaving.
Using pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where your engine hasn't run take about half an hour after our technicians arrive. Nothing in advance; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Lindale, briefly
Lindale is a small village in Cumbria, situated on the coastal plain near Morecambe Bay. Lindale has a population of around 547 people and is characterized by detached housing. Lindale sits at an elevation of 21 metres, close to nearby villages such as Hampsfield and Meathop. Lindale is located approximately 12 miles from Lancaster, a major city in the region.
Lindale and Cumbria: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout LA postcodes, our teams that cover Lindale — a coastal village — work the surrounding locations too, Eden Mount and Meathop included. Fastest of all: give a LA11 6 postcode for our van.
Moving the car is not needed. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Yew Tree Green, a side street near Iron Mad Wilkinson: our technicians drain the car where it sits. Awkward to explain, like the back of Lindale War Memorial? Close to a border? Checking is better than guessing, and so phone.
In short, for Lindale people
Before you tip, read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Keep the vehicle switched off then phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, across Cumbria.