AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Lislea: How It Happens and How to Stop It
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case put this page down for now, leave your ignition and engine off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Usually, when your motor has not run, it is drained and fully purged where your car is in Lislea. The remainder of this page explains why it happens and how to ensure it does not — useful if you're reading ahead of time.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Diesel goes to the engine — yet plenty of modern diesels driven round Lislea and Corrinshego hold another liquid as well. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust gas and cleans it.
Different tanks, different fillers. Plenty of cars have a single flap for both, while some move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Filling your diesel side at the pump goes on constantly. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less regularly. It's in the gap that the mistake happens.
Lislea: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
Carelessness rarely explains it. What does is three things lining up at once.
Hurry comes from the warning. The vehicle tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a drive off Dunskey Street, or on the way home in the car park at the pub in the village.
Then, your hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old vehicle — since a hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the pour after it has started. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Lislea or out in Belleeks.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
A few seconds is all these take — so check them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Mullaghbawn or a forecourt around Lislea.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue ones are often blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally don't.
- On many motors, the size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says where it is if your filler is not next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- The previous driver knows. Ask as you collect a hire car or fleet car — at the nearest station's car park, perhaps — rather than once the light appears.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
Anywhere across County Armagh the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Not in a rush on the side of South Crescent, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park and switch off first.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew it. It seems daft. It works.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where both share a flap, make sure it's shut before lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Don't carry on to stage five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Lislea?
The short order of things, starting with not starting the motor. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch the car on. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
Ask the staff to help roll your car away from the pump if you're at a forecourt — the the nearest petrol station, the another forecourt nearby or anywhere else. Your own drive in Lislea is where it should stay.
Already started? Pull over when it's sensible, then switch off. Leave the M77 — over 50 miles out of Lislea — at the first exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Newry, under 5 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Lislea.
Lislea: what occurs when we get there
Anywhere the vehicle came to rest, whether outside the local primary school, near the centre or at home, the van comes to it. The answers determine the work and our quote, and so our engineers ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether it's run. On the phone call itself, you are told the quote — before anything else.
Next: draining, then a thorough flush of the entire system. More than with petrol, it counts here: crystals build up, certain metals corrode, and none of it clears away unaided, no matter how long it sits. Once the filter has been flushed — or renewed, where required — clean diesel goes in, and finally your car is tested. Before we leave, our technicians fire it up and confirm that it's running properly.
With pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where the engine hasn't run take roughly half an hour after our engineers arrive. Your insurer usually wants the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours once this job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Lislea and where it is
Lislea is a small locality in County Armagh, situated inland at an elevation of 141 metres, approximately 4.6 miles from Newry. Lislea is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its rural setting. Lislea is close to several nearby villages, including Belleeks, Camlough, and Dorsey, and is home to around 879 residents.
AdBlue drains around Lislea, and County Armagh beyond
Camlough and Dorsey are among the places around Lislea, a small village, that the same teams cover, throughout BT postcodes. Quickest of all: quote a BT35 9 postcode to our van.
The car stays where it is. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near a street just off the centre, a lay-by on the way to the green space at the edge of the village, a drive. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you are near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of the far end of the built-up part.
For Lislea drivers, the short version
First, the cap; then, the tip. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Keep the car off and call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, throughout County Armagh.