How It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Lowton Heath
Leave your engine and ignition off and call 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. A drain and a thorough flush, done just where your vehicle stands in Lowton Heath, is usually what it needs when found before the engine runs. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel feeds your motor — but many current diesels seen around Lowton Heath and Lowton St Marys carry another fluid too. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust gas and cleans it.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the layout on many motors. On others, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in the boot instead. Diesel goes in at every forecourt visit, week in, week out. Rarely topped up, AdBlue normally comes out of a bottle, poured by someone who has to stop and think which filler it needs. Mistakes happen in the gap between them.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank take place in Lowton Heath?
Carelessness seldom causes it. What does is three things lining up together.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from the vehicle, and letting it run out leads to limp mode — so a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Stone Cross Lane South, perhaps at Traveller's Rest on the way home after work.
Unfamiliar cars come next, too. Hire cars, new vehicles and company cars place their fillers in new places, and habit goes for the cap it 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 after it has started. Whether it occurs in Town of Lowton or the middle of Lowton Heath, it's the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you tip anything, on a drive in Golborne or a forecourt around Lowton Heath.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally is not. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- On many motors, the size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on many cars. Check for it.
- Cannot see it next to your diesel filler? Then look below the bonnet or in your boot — the owner's manual says which.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Newton-Le-Willows.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
Wherever around Greater Manchester the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Pull in on level, motor off, with time to spare — never hurried on the side of East Lancashire Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before you start your car, shut the cap and look a second time that your diesel cap never opened off.
Find at stage two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? So stop right there. Do not go on to stage five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Lowton Heath?
The short order of things, beginning with no starting the motor. Do not switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel won't thin it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the bottom of your tank, just where the fuel is taken from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it is the Esso or the Paul Hesketh, ask the staff to help push the car away from the pump. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway around Lowton Heath.
Already run? Stop once it's sensible, then turn off. The next junction is the place to leave if you're on the M6, under a mile from Lowton Heath. A short hop across Lowton Heath is a smaller job than a run towards Salford, under 15 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
When our technicians get there in Lowton Heath, what happens?
Our technicians come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside St Luke's CofE Primary School, near Golborne Sports & Social Club or on your own driveway. Both the work and the price rest on three replies — what liquid, which amount, and whether it has run — so our engineers ask. You get that price on the phone, before anyone sets off.
Draining that tank comes next, followed by a full flush of the fuel system. More than with petrol, it matters here: the crystals form, some metals corrode, and none of that clears away on its own, however long it sits. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Your engine is fired up next and tested to make sure it runs properly, all before we leave.
Unrun cars mostly mean a half-hour job from arrival. The kit is fine on a live forecourt, and hushed enough for a driveway late at night. Your insurer usually wants the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both once this job is done. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. Misfuelling cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Lowton Heath itself
Lowton Heath is a small hamlet situated on the riverside in Greater Manchester, with an elevation of around 36 metres. Lowton Heath lies near the town of Lowton and other nearby places such as Lane Head and Bank Heath. Lowton Heath is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its relatively rural setting within the North West region. Lowton Heath is located approximately 12 miles from the city of Salford and about 170 miles from London.
AdBlue drains around Lowton Heath and across Greater Manchester
Lane Head and Bank Heath are among the towns near Lowton Heath, a rural hamlet, that the same vans cover, over WA postcodes. A postcode starting WA3 1 gets the van to you fastest.
There's no need to shift your car. Wherever it sits — beside Church Lane Community Centre, on a lay-by heading to Jubilee Wood Community Woodland, at home — that's where it is cleared. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Huskisson Memorial, ring and ask instead of guessing.
Lowton Heath motorists: the short version
Pour no AdBlue until you've read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway, leave it off then call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere around Greater Manchester.