Lower Village: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Stop reading a minute if the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and ring 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, done just where the vehicle sits in Lower Village, is usually all it takes if caught before your motor runs. Here in advance? In that case the rest explains why it happens and what to prevent it happening at all.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Diesel goes to your motor — but plenty of current diesels driven around Lower Village and Pensby carry a second liquid as well. AdBlue goes to the 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 every tank. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is topped up at the petrol pump all the time. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less often. Mistakes happen in that gap between the two.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank happens in Lower Village
It's rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from your car, and letting it run dry leads to limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Church Farm Court, perhaps at The Black Horse Hotel on the way home after work.
New-to-you motors come second, as well. Hire cars, new motors and company motors put their fillers differently, and habit reaches for the cap 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, and so nothing stops the tip after it has started. It takes seconds, be it in Heswall or bang in the heart of Lower Village.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Parkgate or a forecourt around Lower Village, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Check the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue caps are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally aren't.
- On many cars, the size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Open the flap and check for a label — many vehicles show what belongs in which inlet right there.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by the diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at Heswall, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
For the day the warning appears — anywhere it is across Merseyside — a simple routine to follow.
- Not in a rush on the side of Village Road, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park then switch off first.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, perhaps, yet it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the vehicle, shut the cap and check again that the diesel cap was never came off.
Find during the second or third stage that AdBlue went in the diesel tank? That's where you stop. Never go on to step five.
Lower Village: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Do not start the motor: that is how the short order of things begins. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch the vehicle on. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is drawn from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it is the Shell or the Texaco, ask the staff to help roll the vehicle away from the pump. On your own drive in Lower Village? Then your car remains where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your engine has already run. On the M53, under 3 miles from Lower Village, that means the next junction. Mileage matters — a quick hop across Lower Village makes a smaller job than heading under 10 miles towards Liverpool — so tell us about how far it went.
Lower Village: what occurs when our engineers turn up
We come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Heswall St Peter's CofE Primary School, near St Peters Church or on your own driveway. Both the work and the price depend on three replies — which liquid, which amount, and if it has run — so our technicians ask. That quote comes on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
Emptying that tank comes next, then a thorough flush of the fuel system. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own. The filter cleaned or, where it must be, swapped; clean diesel in; then a check of your vehicle. Your engine is fired up next and tested to make sure it runs correctly, all before our engineers head off.
Using pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where the engine hasn't run take roughly half an hour once our technicians arrive. Your insurer usually wants an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. While we travel, take a look at your policy; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Lower Village itself
Lower Village is a suburban area located on the Wirral Peninsula in Merseyside, with a mix of detached housing and scenic views of the surrounding coastline. Lower Village sits at an elevation of 88 metres, overlooking the Dee Estuary and the Irish Sea, and is close to nearby places such as Heswall and Gayton. Lower Village is situated near the city of Liverpool, approximately 7.9 miles away, and is part of the larger North West region of England. Lower Village has a population of around 3240 residents, living in predominantly detached homes.
AdBlue drains round Lower Village, and Merseyside beyond
Over CH postcodes, our teams that cover Lower Village — a residential suburb — work the nearby places too, Poll Hill and Gayton included. Fastest of all: give a CH60 0 postcode for our van.
There's no need to move your car. Wherever it sits — near Hill House Garden Memorial, in a lay-by en route to The Beacons, at home — that's where it is emptied. Assuming won't help behind Heswall Library, on a boundary, or somewhere awkward to pin down; ring and ask.
Lower Village motorists: the short version
Read the cap before you tip. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it wherever it stands, wherever in Merseyside: keep the car off and ring 0333 366 0103.