Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Lucas Green
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then put this page down for now, leave the ignition and engine off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Lucas Green. Reading before the event? In that case what follows covers how it comes about and what to stop it ever happening.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Diesel goes to your motor — yet plenty of modern diesels driven about Lucas Green and Higher Copthurst carry another fluid too. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Every tank comes with a filler of its own. 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. Filling the diesel side at the petrol pump happens all the time. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes normally fills 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 around Lucas Green
Carelessness rarely causes it. What does is three things coming up at once.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out completely, your vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Wardle Court before work, or in the car park outside The Roebuck on the way home.
The old car's filler is where the hand reaches — yet a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That's the second factor: an unfamiliar vehicle.
A spouted bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, once begun, keeps on. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Lucas Green or out in Whittle-le-Woods.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Whether a Lucas Green forecourt or a driveway out in Great Knowley, spend a couple of seconds over these before anything goes in.
- Read the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually are not.
- The size. On plenty of vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of cars say there which fuel goes where.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler is if it is not by the diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Buckshaw Parkway.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
Anywhere in Lancashire the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Turn off after you park — flat ground, motor off, and never rushed by Buckton Close at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- The two under a single flap? So make sure the lid on the diesel side stays closed ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Find during the second or third step that the bottle went into the wrong filler? That's where you stop. Don't go on to step five.
Lucas Green: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Don't start the engine: that is how the short order of things starts. The fuel pump runs on many diesels the moment your ignition goes on — so keep it off. Filling up with diesel won't weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of your tank, just where fuel is taken from.
Ask the attendants to help roll the vehicle away from the pump if you're at a forecourt — the BP, the D.Mayor & Son Coal Merchants or anywhere else. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway around Lucas Green.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. The next exit means the place to come off if you are on the M61, under a mile from Lucas Green. A short hop across Lucas Green is a smaller job than a run towards Preston, under 10 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
Lucas Green: what takes place when we arrive
Our technicians come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Whittle-le-Woods Church of England Primary School, close to Bofors gun emplacement and attached pillbox or on your own drive. Those replies determine the work and the price, so our technicians ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it has run. That quote comes on the call, before any van leaves.
Draining your tank comes next, followed by a full 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, so it doesn't wash out on its own. The filter flushed or, where it must be, replaced; fresh diesel in; and then a test of your vehicle. Before we go, our technicians start it and check that it's running properly.
If your engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Nothing upfront; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Lucas Green, briefly
Lucas Green is a suburban area in Lancashire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of around 95 metres. Lucas Green lies approximately 6 miles from Preston and is near other local places such as Whittle-le-Woods and Johnsons Hillock. Lucas Green has a population of around 2423 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing.
AdBlue drains around Lucas Green and across Lancashire
Throughout PR postcodes, our vans that cover Lucas Green — a residential suburb — work the surrounding places too, Hartwood and Johnsons Hillock included. Fastest of all: quote a PR6 7 postcode for our van.
The vehicle doesn't need to move. We drain it where it is — a side street close to Preston England Temple, a lay-by on the way to QEII Diamond Jubilee, a drive. Guessing won't help behind David Lloyd Clubs, on a border, or somewhere hard to describe; ring and check.
For Lucas Green people, the short version
Pour no AdBlue till you've read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless, leave the car off then call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere in Lancashire.