AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Lutterworth: Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It
Stop reading a minute if your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then phone 0333 366 0103. Around Lutterworth, catching it before your motor turns normally leaves draining and a full flush on the spot. 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 vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
No single liquid but two: that's what many newer diesels around Lutterworth and Bitteswell carry, with diesel for the motor. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust stream to clean it.
There is a filler on every tank. Other cars keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot more place the two side by side behind one flap. The diesel side is filled at the petrol pump all the time. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less frequently. It is in that gap that the mistake happens.
Lutterworth: how AdBlue in the diesel tank happens
Carelessness rarely explains it. Instead is three things coming up at once.
Hurry comes from the warning. The car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a drive off Misterton Way, or heading home in the car park at The Real Ale Classroom.
Then, the hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old car — because a rental car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
No part halts the pour after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it occurs in Misterton or the middle of Lutterworth, it is the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Check these first, at a forecourt in Lutterworth or a drive over in Ashby Parva. A few seconds, that's all.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally is not. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- Many cars give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Open the filler flap and look for a label — many motors mark what goes in which filler just there.
- Can't find it next to your diesel filler? In that case check below the bonnet or inside your boot — the handbook says which.
- The previous driver knows. Ask as you pick up a rental or fleet car — from Rugby's car park, perhaps — rather than when the warning appears.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
The day the light goes on, wherever in Leicestershire, use this routine.
- Turn off after you park — flat ground, motor off, and not rushed by Bank Street on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- The two behind a single flap? Then make sure the lid on your diesel filler stays shut before lifting the bottle.
- Stop once that tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; before that, pour gently through the own spout.
- Close the cap, then look once more — making sure the diesel filler stayed closed the whole time. After that, start your car.
Discover at the second or third step that AdBlue went in the diesel filler? That's where you stop. Never go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Lutterworth already?
The short order of things, starting with no starting the engine. Do not switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Thinning it with extra diesel won't work, because AdBlue settles to the base rather than blending — and that is where your fuel is sucked from.
Ask the attendants to help push the car away from the petrol pump if you're at a forecourt — the Esso, the Texaco or somewhere else. If you are on your own driveway in Lutterworth, leave the vehicle where it sits.
When the engine has run already, stop somewhere safe then turn the vehicle off. The next exit is the place to come off when you are on the M1, under a mile from Lutterworth. A short hop across Lutterworth is a smaller job than a run towards Leicester, under 15 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
Lutterworth: what takes place when we turn up
Outside John Wycliffe Primary School, near Lutterworth Town Hall or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our technicians come to it. Which liquid got in, the quantity, and if it ran: our engineers ask since the answers set the work and price. On the phone call itself, you hear the price — ahead of dispatch.
Next: draining, then a full flush of the whole 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 does not wash out on its own. After the filter is cleaned — or renewed, if needed — fresh diesel is added, and then the vehicle gets tested. Before we leave, our technicians start it and confirm that it's running properly.
Using pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the motor hasn't run take about half an hour once our technicians arrive. Your insurer will ask for the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both once this job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — so use the wait to check yours.
About Lutterworth and where it is
Lutterworth is a town in southern Leicestershire, situated on the banks of the River Swift at an elevation of around 123 metres. Lutterworth lies approximately 12 miles south of Leicester and 80 miles north of London, with nearby villages including Misterton, Cotesbach, and Walcote. Lutterworth has a population of around 9245 people, predominantly living in detached housing. Lutterworth is characterized by its riverside setting and surrounding countryside.
Lutterworth and Leicestershire: AdBlue drains across the area
Over LE postcodes, our vans covering Lutterworth — a riverside town — work the nearby spots too, Walcote and Cotesbach included. Quickest of all: quote a LE17 4 postcode to the van.
The car does not need to shift. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near Church Gate Centre, a lay-by on the way to Coventry Road Recreation Ground, a drive. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Lutterworth and District Museum.
Lutterworth drivers: the short version
Pour no AdBlue until you've read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere in Leicestershire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same — so leave it off and call 0333 366 0103.