Lowton: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Pause here a minute when your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before your motor runs, it is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Lowton. The remainder of this page covers why it takes place and how to ensure it doesn't — handy if you are reading before it has happened.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Diesel feeds the engine — yet many newer diesels driven about Lowton and Golborne carry a second fluid as well. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust gas to clean it.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the layout on many vehicles. On others, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. The diesel side is topped up at the pump all the time. Far less frequently, the AdBlue side gets filled — normally from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. Mistakes happen in that gap between the two.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Lowton: how it occurs
Carelessness rarely causes it. What does is three things coming up at once.
On a driveway off Braithwaite Road before work, or in the car park at Rams Head heading home: that is where the hurried top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low the vehicle tells you, and once it's empty, limp mode follows.
Then the vehicle is new. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand reaches 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, and so nothing stops the pour once it has started. It's seconds, be it in Bank Heath or bang in the centre of Lowton.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Check these before pouring, on a forecourt around Lowton or a drive out in Lowton Common. Seconds, no more.
- Read the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue caps are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually are not.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on many vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- Lift the flap and check for a label — many motors mark which belongs in each filler just there.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler is if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Newton-Le-Willows.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
Anywhere in Greater Manchester the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Turn off after you park — flat ground, engine off, and not in a rush by The Grove at the roadside.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, yes, but it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before starting your car, close the cap and look again that the diesel cap never opened off.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Stage five is off limits.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Lowton already?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with not starting your motor. Don't switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is drawn from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it is the Esso or the Paul Hesketh, ask the staff to help push the car clear of the pump. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive in Lowton.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the engine has already run. The next junction is the place to leave when you're on the M6, under 3 miles from Lowton. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Salford, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Lowton.
Our arrival in Lowton, and what happens next
By Lowton West Primary School, near Saint Luke or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, we come to it. The answers determine this work and our price, so we ask what got in, about how much, and if it's run. You get that quote by phone, before anyone sets off.
Emptying that tank comes next, followed by a full flush of the fuel system. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. The motor is started next and tested to make sure it runs properly, all before we head off.
If your motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents an insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Lowton, briefly
Lowton is a suburban area in Greater Manchester, situated inland at an elevation of 36 metres. Lowton lies approximately 11.6 miles from Salford and is surrounded by nearby places such as Bank Heath, Lowton St Marys, and Lane Head. Lowton has a population of around 5483 people and is characterised by predominantly semi-detached housing. Lowton is located in the North West region of England, about 170.7 miles from London.
AdBlue drains in Lowton and across Greater Manchester
Over WA postcodes, the vans covering Lowton — a residential suburb — work the surrounding spots too, Lane Head and Lowton St Marys among them. Quote a postcode that starts WA3 2, and the van gets there fastest.
The vehicle remains where it is. Draining takes place on the spot, whether a drive, a street by Church Lane Community Centre, or a layby towards Braithwaite Park. Tricky to explain, like the back of Lowton and Golborne Community Church? By a border? Checking is better than assuming, so phone.
For Lowton motorists, the short version
Tip no AdBlue until you've read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere across Greater Manchester, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — and so leave the car off then ring 0333 366 0103.