Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Low Farm: Why It Occurs
Leave your engine and ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Caught before the motor runs, it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Low Farm. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Plenty of modern diesels on the roads around Low Farm and Holt Park carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. The exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the fumes to fresh it, from a separate tank.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, side by side: that is the arrangement on many vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. Diesel goes in on each filling station visit, week in, week out. Rarely topped up, AdBlue usually goes in from a bottle, poured by a driver who must stop and think which cap it needs. The slip lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs in Low Farm
Carelessness seldom causes it. Instead is three things lining up together.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle 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 Otley Old Road before work, or in the car park outside The High Farm on the way home.
Unfamiliar cars come second, as well. Rentals, new cars and company motors put their fillers in new places, and the hand reaches for the cap used on the old one.
Nothing stops the pour after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it occurs in Ireland Wood or the middle of Low Farm, it is the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Check these first, on a forecourt around Low Farm or a driveway out in Lawnswood. Seconds, that's all.
- Read the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually are not.
- The size. On plenty of vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Open the flap and look for a label — many vehicles show what goes in which inlet right there.
- Can't see it beside the diesel filler? In that case check below the bonnet or inside the boot — the owner's manual will say where.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Horsforth, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
The day the light comes on, anywhere in West Yorkshire, follow this routine.
- Stop on level, motor off, with time to spare — not rushing on the side of Laith Road.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, perhaps, yet it does the trick.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where the two share a flap, confirm it is shut before the bottle comes up.
- Stop when that tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; before that, pour gently using the built-in spout.
- Before you start the car, close the cap and look a second time that your diesel cap was never opened off.
Find at step two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? Then stop right there. Skip step five entirely.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Low Farm?
Brief order, then. Top of that: the engine stays unstarted. Don't switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Thinning it with extra diesel won't work, because AdBlue sinks to the bottom instead of blending — and that's where your fuel is pulled from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it's the Esso or the BP, ask the staff to help roll the car clear of the petrol pump. If you are on your own driveway around Low Farm, leave it where it is.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Come off the Inner Ring Road — under 5 miles out of Low Farm — at the first junction. Distance matters — a short hop across Low Farm is a smaller job than driving under 5 miles to Leeds — so say roughly how far it went.
Low Farm: what takes place when our technicians arrive
The van reaches the car anywhere it stopped — your own drive, near St Paul, or outside Ireland Wood Primary School. We ask what went in, about how much, and whether it has run, since the replies decide the work and our price. Nobody sets off until you've had the price by phone.
The fuel system is then flushed thoroughly, once the tank is drained. More than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: crystals form, certain metals corrode, and none of that washes away on its own, no matter how long it is left. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. The engine is started next and checked to be sure it runs smoothly, all before our engineers leave.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour after we arrive, provided the engine hasn't run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a busy forecourt yet quiet after dark outside a house. No money in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. It's worth checking your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Low Farm, briefly
Low Farm is a suburban area located in West Yorkshire, situated approximately 4.1 miles from Leeds and 173.3 miles from London. Low Farm sits at an elevation of 181 metres, surrounded by nearby places such as Ireland Wood, Tinshill, and Tinshill Moor. Low Farm is characterised by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock, which reflects the typical residential development of the region. Low Farm has a population of around 4636 people, according to approximate estimates.
AdBlue drains about Low Farm, and West Yorkshire beyond
Being a residential suburb, Low Farm has the same vans as surrounding areas — Tinshill, Tinshill Moor — all the way across LS postcodes and the wider area around them. Quickest of all: quote a LS16 6 postcode to the van.
The vehicle remains where it is. Wherever it stands — near Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church, on a layby heading to Tinshill Top, on a drive — that is where it gets cleared. Guessing won't help behind Adel Friends Meeting House, close to a border, or somewhere awkward to describe; phone and check.
For Low Farm drivers, the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it wherever it is, wherever in West Yorkshire: keep the car off then phone 0333 366 0103.