AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Little Eaton: How It Happens and How to Stop It
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then set this page aside a moment, leave your ignition and engine off, then call 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, carried out right where the vehicle stands around Little Eaton, is usually all it needs if found before the engine runs. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Diesel feeds the motor — but plenty of modern diesels seen about Little Eaton and Morleymoor hold a second fluid as well. Your exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the gas to fresh it, from a separate tank.
Each tank has its own filler. Other vehicles put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot more place the two together behind one flap. The diesel side is fuelled at the petrol pump all the time. Rarely topped up, AdBlue normally goes in from a bottle, poured by a driver who must stop and think which cap it needs. That gap is where the error lives.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs around Little Eaton
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Alfreton Road before work, or in the car park outside The Queen's Head on the way home.
The old car's filler is where your hand goes — yet a hire car, a new motor or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That's the second factor: a new vehicle.
A spout-topped bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, once started, keeps on. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Little Eaton or out in Duffieldbank.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Check these before pouring, on a forecourt around Little Eaton or a driveway over in Coxbench. Seconds, that's all.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually do not.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- Look inside the fuel flap: many vehicles have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by the diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at Duffield, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
On the day the warning appears — wherever you are around Derbyshire — a simple routine to follow.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Highfield Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Stop once the tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; before that, pour gently using its own spout.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Spot at stage two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? Then stop right there. Never go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Little Eaton?
Do not start your motor: that's where the short order of things starts. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch the car on. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is drawn from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
The staff at Shell, TotalEnergies or another forecourt will normally lend a hand to push your car away if asked. Your own driveway in Little Eaton is the place it stays.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your engine has already run. Come off the M1 — under 10 miles out of Little Eaton — at the first junction. A short hop across Little Eaton is a smaller job than a run towards Derby, under 5 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
When we turn up around Little Eaton, what occurs?
Wherever your car came to rest, whether outside Little Eaton Primary School, beside St Paul's Church Little Eaton or on your own drive, our van comes to it. Which liquid got in, the quantity, and if it ran: our engineers ask because the answers decide both work and quote. That quote comes on the call, before any van leaves.
Your system is then rinsed thoroughly, after your tank is drained. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that matters more here than with petrol. Once the filter has been cleaned — or renewed, where needed — fresh diesel goes in, and finally your car is tested. We do not leave until it has been fired up and is running smoothly.
Unrun cars usually mean a half-hour visit after the moment we arrive. The equipment is fine on a busy forecourt, and quiet enough for a driveway after dark. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork an insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Little Eaton
Little Eaton is a village in Derbyshire, situated on the banks of the River Derwent at an elevation of 56 metres. Little Eaton lies close to the city of Derby, approximately 3.2 miles to the northwest, and is surrounded by nearby places such as Duffieldbank and Breadsall. Little Eaton has a population of around 1264 people and predominantly features detached housing. Little Eaton is located in the East Midlands region, about 115.7 miles northwest of London.
AdBlue drains about Little Eaton, and Derbyshire beyond
Flaxholme and Breadsall are among the places near Little Eaton, a village, that the same teams cover, over DE postcodes. Give a postcode that starts DE21 5, and our van gets there quickest.
There's no need to shift your car. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Cotter Wood, a side street close to Little Eaton United Reformed Church: our technicians drain the vehicle where it sits. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of St Paul's Church Hall, ring and ask rather than assuming.
For Little Eaton people, the short version
Pour no AdBlue till you have read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere in Derbyshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — and so leave the car off then ring 0333 366 0103.