How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Lintz
Stop reading for a moment when your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Lintz. Here in advance? Then the rest covers why it comes about and how to prevent it ever happening.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
No single fluid but two: that's how many modern diesels near Lintz and Pickering Nook run, with diesel for the engine. The exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the fumes to fresh it, from its own tank.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Under one flap, side by side: that is the layout on a lot of cars. On others, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in your boot instead. At the pump, your diesel side gets filled constantly. 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 slip lives.
Lintz: how AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
Hurry follows from the warning. The car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a drive off Thornhill Gardens, or on the way home in the car park at The Sun Inn.
New-to-you cars are next, too. Rentals, new vehicles and company vehicles place their fillers in new places, and the hand goes for the cap used on the old one.
Nothing halts the pour after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Leazes or the heart of Lintz: it is the same few seconds either way.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A few seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you tip anything, on a drive in Hobson or a forecourt in Lintz.
- Position can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones are often blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally do not.
- Plenty of cars fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Look inside the fuel flap: many motors have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says which it lives if the filler is not next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Blaydon? Ask whoever drove the car last before you set off, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
On the day the warning appears — wherever it is across Durham — a simple routine to follow.
- Not in a rush on the side of Albion Gardens, not on a slope, not with the 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 silly and it works.
- Both behind one flap? So make sure the lid on the diesel side is still closed ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, then look again — confirm your diesel filler remained shut the whole time. Only then, start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Don't go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Lintz already?
Do not start your engine: that is how the short order of things begins. Do not switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — Esso, Texaco or another — the attendants will usually help push the car away, when you ask. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway in Lintz.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. On the A1(M), under 10 miles from Lintz, that means the next junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Newcastle upon Tyne, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Lintz.
What occurs when our engineers get there around Lintz
Wherever the car came to rest, be it outside Burnopfield Primary School, beside Lintz Cricket Club or at home, our van comes to it. Those answers determine this work and the quote, so our engineers ask what was put in, about how much, and whether it has run. That quote comes over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
Emptying the tank comes next, then a thorough flush of the fuel system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that counts more here than with petrol. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. We do not go until it has been started and is running properly.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour after our engineers get there, provided your engine has not run — and the pumps we use are safe on a busy forecourt yet quiet after dark beside a house. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents your insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Wrong-fuel cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Lintz
Lintz is a suburban area situated inland in County Durham, approximately 7.4 miles from Newcastle upon Tyne. Lintz sits at an elevation of 185 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Lintz is located near other suburban areas such as Leazes and High Friarside, and is part of the wider Newcastle upon Tyne urban area. Lintz has a population of around 2386 residents.
AdBlue drains about Lintz, and Durham beyond
Throughout NE postcodes, the vans covering Lintz — a residential suburb — work the nearby locations too, Bryans Leap and High Friarside included. Give a postcode beginning NE16 6, and our van gets there fastest.
Moving your car is not needed. Anywhere it stands — near Burnopfield Community Centre, on a layby en route to Black Hill, at home — that is where it is emptied. Assuming doesn't help behind St James, close to a border, or somewhere hard to pin down; phone and check.
In short, for Lintz people
Read the cap before you pour. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Keep the car off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, across Durham.