Why It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Little Mancot
Leave your motor and ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Around Little Mancot, catching it before your motor turns usually means a drain and a full flush where it stands. The rest of this page explains why it occurs and how to ensure it does not — handy if you are reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Not one liquid but two: that is what many modern diesels near Little Mancot and Hawarden carry, with diesel for the motor. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There's a filler on every tank. Some motors keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot more place both side by side under one flap. At the pump, the diesel side gets filled constantly. Seldom filled, AdBlue normally goes in out of a bottle, poured by a driver who has to stop and think what filler to use. The error lives in that gap.
Little Mancot: how AdBlue in the diesel tank happens
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
Hurry follows from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a driveway off Scots Road, or on the way home in the car park outside The White Bear.
The old car's cap is where the hand goes — but a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That is a second factor: a strange motor.
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. It takes seconds, whether in Big Mancot or bang in the heart of Little Mancot.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Pentre or a forecourt around Little Mancot, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Position misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue caps are often blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally do not.
- On plenty of motors, the size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside your fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on many cars. Check for it.
- The handbook says which it lives if the filler is not next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Hawarden.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
The day the light goes on, wherever around Flintshire, use this routine.
- Pull in somewhere level, motor off, with time to spare — never rushing on the side of Ashlea Close.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, perhaps, yet it works.
- Both behind one flap? So confirm the lid on your diesel side stays shut before lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start the vehicle: close the cap, check again, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Never go on to step five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Little Mancot?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the motor. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch the vehicle on. Diluting it with extra diesel won't work, because AdBlue sinks to the base instead of blending — and that is where your fuel is pulled from.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it's the Asda or the Esso, ask the attendants to help push your car away from the petrol pump. Your own driveway around Little Mancot is the place it should stay.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your motor has already run. Leave the M56 — under 10 miles out of Little Mancot — at the first exit. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Little Mancot is less a job than a run of under 10 miles towards Chester, and so tell us.
When our engineers turn up in Little Mancot, what occurs?
Wherever the car has stopped, be it outside Saughall All Saints Church of England Primary School, beside Mancot Community Library or at home, our van travels to it. We ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether it's run, because those answers decide the work and the price. No one sets off before you've had the quote over the phone.
Emptying the tank comes next, then a thorough flush of your system. Much more than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: crystals build up, some metals corrode, and none of that clears out on its own, however long it sits. Once the filter has been cleaned — or renewed, if needed — clean diesel is added, and finally your vehicle gets tested. The motor is fired up next and checked to make sure it runs smoothly, all before we head off.
If your engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. No money in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. It's worth looking at your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Little Mancot
Little Mancot is a small village in Flintshire, situated near the England-Wales border and approximately 5 miles from Chester. Little Mancot has a relatively low elevation of around 25 metres and is characterized by semi-detached housing. Little Mancot is close to other nearby places such as Big Mancot and Mancot Royal, and is part of a larger residential area.
Little Mancot and Flintshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Over CH postcodes, our vans covering Little Mancot — a rural village — work the surrounding places too, The Moor and Mancot Royal included. A postcode starting CH5 2 gets the van to you fastest.
Your car stays put. Draining happens on the spot, whether a driveway, a road near Mancot Village Hall, or a layby towards Willow Park. Assuming won't help behind Greenacres Animal Park, on a border, or anywhere awkward to describe; ring and check.
For Little Mancot motorists, the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave it off and call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it sits, anywhere around Flintshire.