AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Lower Fold: Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and the ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, done right where your vehicle sits in Lower Fold, is normally what it takes if found before your motor runs. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Plenty of modern diesels on the roads round Lower Fold and Barnfield carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Every tank comes with one filler of its own. Other cars put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others place both together under one flap. Topping up the diesel side at the petrol pump goes on constantly. Much less commonly, the AdBlue side gets filled — mostly from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. The slip lives in that gap.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Lower Fold: how it happens
It is rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a drive off Mason Street before work, or in the car park outside The Commercial Hotel on the way home: that's where the rushed top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low the car warns you, and once it is gone, limp mode kicks in.
Then the car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the tip after it has started. Whether it occurs in Accrington or the middle of Lower Fold, it is the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Check these before pouring, on a forecourt around Lower Fold or a drive over in Scaitcliffe. Seconds, no more.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally isn't. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on many cars, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on many motors. Check for it.
- Can't find it beside the diesel inlet? In that case look beneath the bonnet or in the boot — the owner's manual says where.
- Whoever had it before knows. Ask as you collect a rental or fleet car — from Accrington's car park, say — not once the warning appears.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
For the day the light comes on — anywhere it is in Lancashire — a simple routine to follow.
- Stop somewhere level, motor off, with time in hand — never rushing on the side of Cobdon Street.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" out loud while unscrewing it. It seems daft. It does the trick.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the car: close the cap, check again, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Find at the second or third step that AdBlue went in the diesel tank? That is where you stop. Never carry on to step five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Lower Fold already?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with not starting your engine. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch the car on. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is pulled from.
Ask the staff to help roll the car away from the pump if you are on a forecourt — the Texaco, the Shell or anywhere else. If you're on your own driveway around Lower Fold, leave it where it is.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Come off the M65 — under 3 miles out of Lower Fold — at the first junction. Distance counts — a short hop across Lower Fold makes a smaller job than driving under 15 miles towards Preston — so say about how far it went.
Our arrival around Lower Fold, and what takes place next
Wherever the vehicle came to rest, be it outside Accrington St John with St Augustine Church of England Primary School, near Accrington Arndale Centre or at home, the van comes to it. Our engineers ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether it has run, since those replies determine the work and our quote. Nobody sets off until you have heard the quote by phone.
Emptying your tank comes next, followed by a full flush of your system. 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 counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. After the fuel filter has been flushed — or renewed, if needed — fresh diesel is added, and then the car gets tested. We do not go until it has been started and is running smoothly.
Unrun cars mostly mean a half-hour job after arrival. The equipment is fine on a live filling station, and hushed enough for a driveway late at night. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents an insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. It is worth looking at your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Lower Fold and where it is
Lower Fold is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Lancashire, with a mix of terraced housing and other residential properties. Lower Fold sits at an elevation of 139 metres, approximately 13.7 miles from Preston and 181.4 miles from London. Lower Fold forms part of a larger urban landscape that includes nearby places like Accrington, Waterloo, and Milnshaw.
AdBlue drains around Lower Fold and across Lancashire
Over BB postcodes, the teams covering Lower Fold — a residential suburb — work the surrounding spots too, Milnshaw and Waterloo among them. A postcode starting BB5 1 gets the van to you fastest.
Shifting the vehicle is not needed. Anywhere it sits — near Abbey Street Shopping Centre, in a layby en route to Milnshaw Park, at home — that's where it gets emptied. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Accrington Market Hall? Close to a border? Checking beats guessing, so ring.
Lower Fold drivers: the short version
Pour no AdBlue until you've read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Keep the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, throughout Lancashire.