Lowfield: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Stop here a minute if your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and ring 0333 366 0103. A drain and a full flush, carried out just where your vehicle sits around Lowfield, is normally what it takes when caught before your engine runs. The rest of this page explains why it takes place and how to ensure it does not — useful if you're reading ahead of time.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Plenty of newer diesels around Sharrow, like those in Lowfield, carry on two fluids; your motor takes just your diesel. The exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the fumes to clean them, from a separate tank.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Other vehicles put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others place the two together behind one flap. At the pump, your diesel side gets filled all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less commonly, usually from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the mistake lives.
Lowfield: how AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place
Carelessness seldom explains it. Instead is three things coming up together.
Hurry comes from the warning. The car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a drive off Prospect Road, or on the way home in the car park at The Sheaf View.
The old car's filler is where your hand goes — yet a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That's a second thing: an unfamiliar car.
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. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Lowfield or out in Heeley.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Look at these first, on a forecourt in Lowfield or a driveway over in Nether Edge. Seconds, that's all.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually isn't. Read it rather than going by position.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside the fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Look for it.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler sits if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Sheffield? Ask whoever drove the vehicle last before you set off, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
Wherever across South Yorkshire the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Midhill Road, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park then switch off properly.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, yes, yet it works.
- The diesel cap remains on. When the two sit under a flap, confirm it is shut before lifting the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start your car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Spot at step two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? So stop right there. Don't carry on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Lowfield?
Short order, then. First: your engine remains unstarted. Do not switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel will not thin it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of that tank, just where the fuel is taken from.
On a forecourt — the nearest petrol station, Esso or any other — the attendants will usually help push your car clear, if you ask. On your own drive in Lowfield? Then your car stays where it is.
Where your motor has been run by now, pull over safely then switch it off. On the M1, under 5 miles from Lowfield, that means the next exit. A short hop across Lowfield is a smaller job than a run towards Sheffield, under 3 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
Lowfield: what occurs when our technicians turn up
Our engineers come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Lowfield Community Primary School, close to Heeley City Farm or on your own drive. Those replies determine the work and the quote, and so we ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it's run. On the phone call itself, you hear the quote — ahead of anything else.
Draining your tank comes next, followed by a full flush of the fuel system. More than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: crystals build up, certain metals are attacked, and nothing clears out unaided, however long it is left. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. We don't go until it has been fired up and is running smoothly.
If your engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. The insurer will ask for an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both once the job is done. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. It's worth looking at your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Lowfield, for a moment
Lowfield is a suburban area situated on the riverside in South Yorkshire, with a mix of terraced housing and local amenities. Lowfield lies close to the city centre of Sheffield, approximately 1.2 miles away, and is near other suburbs such as Heeley and Highfield. Lowfield has a population of around 9091 residents and is located at an elevation of 73 metres. Lowfield is part of the larger Sheffield urban area, which is about 140.2 miles from London.
AdBlue drains around Lowfield, and South Yorkshire beyond
Throughout S postcodes, our vans that cover Lowfield — a residential suburb — work the surrounding locations too, Little Sheffield and Highfield included. A postcode starting S2 3 gets the van to you fastest.
Your car doesn't need to move. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street near Community Room, a lay-by on the way to Lowfield Park, a drive. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you're near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Crows Nest.
For Lowfield motorists, the short version
Read the cap before you tip. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere around South Yorkshire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same — so leave the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103.