Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Longsowerby: Why It Happens
Pause here for a moment if your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then ring 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, done right where the vehicle stands around Longsowerby, is usually all it takes when found before the motor runs. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Plenty of newer diesels in Raffles, like those in Longsowerby, run on two liquids; your motor takes only the diesel. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust gas to clean it.
Each tank has a filler of its own. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, the diesel side is topped up all the time. Rarely topped up, AdBlue normally comes from a bottle, tipped by a driver who must stop and think what filler to use. That gap is where the error lives.
Longsowerby: how AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from the vehicle, and running dry leads to limp mode — so a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Dunmail Drive, or outside Milbourne Arms on the way home after work.
Next, the hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old motor — since a rental car, a new car or a company car places the fillers where your last one didn't.
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. Morton or the heart of Longsowerby: it is the same few seconds either way.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Willow Holme or a forecourt around Longsowerby, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue caps are often blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally don't.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many cars, the AdBlue one.
- Lift the filler flap and look for a label — plenty of motors show which goes in each filler right there.
- Can't find it beside the diesel inlet? In that case look below the bonnet or in your boot — the handbook says where.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at Carlisle, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
When the light goes on, wherever around Cumbria, follow this routine.
- Pull in on level, engine off, with time in hand — not rushing on the side of Norfolk Road.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap works — after you have located your filler and read the cap.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the car, close the cap and check a second time that the diesel cap was never came off.
Find at step two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? So stop right there. Don't go on to stage five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Longsowerby?
Brief list, then. First: your engine remains off. Leave the ignition off as well, since on plenty of diesels switching it on by itself starts your fuel pump. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
On a forecourt — Asda, JET or any other — the attendants will usually help push the car away, if you ask. If you're on your own drive around Longsowerby, leave the car where it is.
When the engine has been run by now, pull over somewhere safe and turn the vehicle off. Longsowerby lies under 3 miles from the M6; there, take the next junction. A short hop across Longsowerby is a smaller job than a run towards Carlisle, under a mile away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
Our arrival around Longsowerby, and what takes place next
Our engineers come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Newlaithes Junior School, close to St James Church or on your own drive. Those replies determine the work and the price, so our technicians ask what went in, about how much, and whether it has run. Nobody sets off before you've had our quote over the phone.
Emptying that tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of your system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. Testing comes last: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and the filter is flushed or changed if necessary. The motor is fired up next and checked to be sure it runs properly, all before our engineers go.
Unstarted vehicles usually need a half-hour job after the moment we arrive. The kit is fine on a live forecourt, and hushed enough for a residential street late at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It's worth looking at your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Longsowerby
Longsowerby is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Cumbria, with a mix of semi-detached housing and other residential properties. Longsowerby lies close to the city of Carlisle, being only 0.9 miles away, and is near other local places such as Morton and Denton Holme. Longsowerby has a population of approximately 6701 people and is located at an elevation of 30 metres. Longsowerby is part of the wider Carlisle urban area, which is around 260.9 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Cumbria, Longsowerby included
Denton Holme and Caldewgate are among the places near Longsowerby, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, over CA postcodes. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting CA2 6.
Shifting the vehicle isn't necessary. Draining happens right there, be it a drive, a street near The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or a layby on the way to Saint James's Park. Tricky to explain, like the back of Denton Holme Library? Close to a county line? Checking beats assuming, and so phone.
Longsowerby people: the short version
First, the cap; then, the pour. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave the car off and call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it sits, anywhere in Cumbria.