Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Low Valley: Why It Occurs
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then put this page down for now, keep the ignition and motor off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Normally, when the engine has not turned, it is drained and thoroughly rinsed where your car is in Low Valley. Reading before the event? In that case the rest explains how it happens and how to prevent it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
No single fluid but two: that is what plenty of newer diesels around Low Valley and Broomhill carry, with diesel feeding the motor. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Other cars keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others have both side by side behind one flap. Diesel gets filled on each filling station call-out, again and again. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less often, normally from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
Low Valley: how AdBlue in the diesel tank happens
Carelessness seldom causes it. What does is three things lining up together.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from your car, and letting it run out means limp mode — so a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Millmoor Court, or outside The Horseshoe on the way home that evening.
The old car's filler is where the hand goes — but a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That is the second thing: a new motor.
Nothing halts the tip after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It's seconds, whether out in Wombwell or right in the centre of Low Valley.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Edderthorpe or a forecourt in Low Valley.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- Plenty of vehicles fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Look for it.
- Cannot see it next to the diesel inlet? Then check beneath the bonnet or inside your boot — the handbook says where.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park at Wombwell? Ask whoever drove it last before leaving, rather than once the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around South Yorkshire that is.
- Turn off after you park — flat ground, engine off, and never rushed beside Bole Close on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew it. It sounds silly. It does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it is 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.
Find at step two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? Then stop just there. Step five is off limits.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Low Valley already?
Do not start the engine: that is where the short order of things begins. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels as soon as the ignition is switched on — so keep it off. Thinning it with more diesel fails, since AdBlue sinks to the base rather than mixing — and that's where the fuel is sucked from.
On a forecourt — BP, Texaco or any other — the staff will usually help push the vehicle away, if you ask. At home in Low Valley? Then the vehicle stays where it is.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. The next exit means the place to come off if you are on the M1, under 5 miles from Low Valley. A short hop across Low Valley is a smaller job than a run towards Doncaster, under 15 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
Our arrival around Low Valley, and what happens next
We come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside St Michael and All Angels Catholic Primary School, close to Darfield Library or on your own driveway. Both the work and our price rest on three replies — which liquid, what quantity, and whether it's run — so we ask. You get that quote on the phone, before anybody sets off.
Then that tank is emptied and the fuel system cleaned thoroughly. More than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: crystals form, certain metals are attacked, and none of it clears out unaided, no matter how long it sits. Once the filter has been flushed — or renewed, if required — fresh diesel goes in, and then your car gets tested. Before we go, our technicians start the engine and confirm that it is running properly.
Unstarted cars usually mean a half-hour job from arrival. The equipment is fine on a busy filling station, and hushed enough for a driveway after dark. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents an insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — and so use the wait to check yours.
About Low Valley and where it is
Low Valley is a suburban area situated on the riverside in South Yorkshire, with an elevation of around 28 metres. Low Valley lies near several neighbouring towns, including Wombwell and Darfield, and is approximately 10.5 miles from Doncaster. Low Valley has a population of around 3695 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Low Valley is also relatively close to other local areas, such as Highfield.
AdBlue drains around Low Valley and across South Yorkshire
Low Valley is a residential suburb, and the vans that cover it also work the places around it, Darfield and Highfield among them, across the S postcode area. Quote a postcode beginning S73 0, and our van arrives quickest.
The vehicle stays put. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Park Hill, a side street near Darfield Cenotaph: we drain the vehicle where it is. Awkward to explain, like the back of The Apostolic Church? Close to a county line? Asking beats assuming, and so phone.
In short, for Low Valley people
Tip nothing until you've read the cap. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it wherever it stands, wherever in South Yorkshire: switch the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103.