Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Low Ackworth: Why It Happens
Keep the engine and ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Around Low Ackworth, finding it before your engine runs usually means draining and a thorough flush on the spot. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel feeds your engine — but many modern diesels driven round Low Ackworth and Rhyddings carry another fluid too. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There is a filler for each tank. Many of vehicles share a single flap for both, whereas others move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is filled at the petrol pump all the time. Rarely filled, AdBlue usually comes out of a bottle, tipped by a driver who has to stop and think what filler it needs. That gap is where the slip lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Low Ackworth: how it takes place
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from the vehicle, and letting it run dry leads to limp mode — so a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Lee Lane, perhaps at The Brown Cow on the way home that evening.
The old car's filler is where the hand goes — yet a rental car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That is a second factor: a strange car.
A spouted bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, after begun, carries on. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Low Ackworth or out in High Ackworth.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Be it a Low Ackworth forecourt or a driveway over in Hessle, spend a few seconds over these before any goes in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually is not. Read it instead of going by position.
- Plenty of cars fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Check inside the fuel flap: many vehicles carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler is if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Ask when you collect a hire car or fleet car — from Featherstone's car park, perhaps — rather than when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
Wherever across West Yorkshire the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Beaufort Mews.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- The two under a single flap? Then confirm the lid on your diesel filler stays closed ahead of raising the bottle.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Discover during the second or third stage that AdBlue went in the wrong tank? That is where you stop. Leave out stage five altogether.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Low Ackworth already?
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, so do not switch the vehicle on. Topping up with diesel will not weaken it: instead, AdBlue drops to the bottom of your tank, just where the fuel is taken from.
Ask the attendants to help push the vehicle away from the pump if you're at a forecourt — the BP, the Esso or anywhere else. Your own drive around Low Ackworth is where it stays.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your engine has already run. Leave the A1(M) — under 5 miles out of Low Ackworth — at the next junction. A short hop across Low Ackworth is a smaller job than a run towards Wakefield, under 10 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
Our arrival in Low Ackworth, and what occurs next
Our engineers come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Ackworth Howard Church of England Voluntary Controlled Junior and Infant School, close to Low Ackworth Community Centre or on your own driveway. We ask what was put in, about how much, and if it's run, since those replies determine this work and the price. Nobody sets off before you have heard the quote over the phone.
Your system is then flushed thoroughly, once that tank is emptied. 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 the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. A test is last: before that, fresh diesel is added, and your filter is cleaned or changed if necessary. We do not go until it has been started and is running smoothly.
If the engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. The insurer usually wants an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours once the job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Wrong-fuel cover is part of many insurance policies — so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Low Ackworth and where it is
Low Ackworth is a village situated on the riverside in West Yorkshire, with a population of around 917 people. Low Ackworth has a mix of housing types, but detached homes are the most predominant. Low Ackworth is located near several other small communities, including High Ackworth and Mount Pleasant, and is close to the city of Wakefield, which is about 7.5 miles away. Low Ackworth sits at an elevation of 32 metres above sea level, in a relatively low-lying area of the county.
AdBlue drains about Low Ackworth, and West Yorkshire beyond
Being a village, Low Ackworth has the same vans as nearby areas — Mount Pleasant, Charlestown Estate — all the way through WF postcodes and the surrounding area around them. A postcode starting WF7 7 gets the van to you fastest.
No need to shift the car. Draining takes place on the spot, be it a drive, a road near Ackworth School Sports Hall, or a layby on the way to Low Ackworth Childrens Playing Ground. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Ackworth Village Cross.
In short, for Low Ackworth drivers
Read the cap before you pour. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere around West Yorkshire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway — so leave it off then phone 0333 366 0103.