Why It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Magheraconluce
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and your ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, carried out just where your vehicle sits in Magheraconluce, is usually all it needs if found before your engine runs. The rest of this page covers why it takes place and how to make sure it does not — handy if you're reading before it has happened.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Diesel feeds the motor — but many newer diesels driven about Magheraconluce and Dromara hold a second liquid too. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, where a spray cleans the gas.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Some cars put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot more have both side by side behind one flap. The diesel side is fuelled at the pump all the time. The AdBlue side is topped up far less frequently, normally from a bottle, and usually by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake grows in the gap between the two.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place in Magheraconluce
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
On a drive off South Crescent before work, or in the car park outside the pub in the village heading home: that is where the rushed top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and once it is empty, limp mode follows.
Next, the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old motor — because a hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
No part halts the pour once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Annahilt or the heart of Magheraconluce: it is the same few seconds in both.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Hillsborough or a forecourt around Magheraconluce, check these. They take a few seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally isn't. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- The size. On plenty of motors 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.
- The handbook shows which it is if your filler isn't next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- The previous driver will know. Check when you pick up a rental or fleet car — from the nearest station's car park, say — rather than when the warning appears.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
Anywhere around County Down the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Pull in somewhere level, motor off, with time to spare — never rushing on the side of Heugh Road.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew it. It sounds silly. It works.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where the two sit under a flap, make sure it is shut before the bottle comes up.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start your car: close the cap, check again, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Skip step five entirely.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Magheraconluce?
Short list, then. First: your engine stays unstarted. Keep your ignition off as well, because on plenty of diesels it by itself runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel won't thin it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of your tank, just where the fuel is drawn from.
The staff at the nearest petrol station, another forecourt nearby or any forecourt will normally help pushing the vehicle away when asked. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway in Magheraconluce.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Come off the M77 — over 50 miles out of Magheraconluce — at the first exit. Distance counts — a quick hop across Magheraconluce is a smaller job than heading under 10 miles to Lisburn — so say about how far it went.
Magheraconluce: what occurs when our technicians turn up
Outside the local primary school, close to the centre or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, our technicians come to it. Both the work and the price rest on three replies — which fluid, what amount, and if it's run — so we ask. That quote comes on the call, before any van leaves.
Your system is then flushed thoroughly, after the tank is emptied. With AdBlue that counts 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. Once your filter has been cleaned — or replaced, where required — clean diesel goes in, and finally the car gets tested. Then our engineers fire it up and make sure it runs smoothly before we go.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour once we arrive, as long as the engine hasn't run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a busy forecourt yet quiet at night outside a house. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork an insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. While we travel, have a look at your insurance documents; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Magheraconluce, for a moment
Magheraconluce is a small locality in County Down, situated inland at an elevation of around 110 metres. Magheraconluce lies near the cities of Lisburn and Belfast, and is close to the nearby places of Annahilt, Drumlough, and Ravernet. Magheraconluce is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its rural setting. Magheraconluce has a population of approximately 532 people, according to recent estimates.
Magheraconluce and County Down: AdBlue drains across the area
Drumlough and Ravernet are among the towns around Magheraconluce, a small village, that the same teams cover, throughout BT postcodes. Fastest of all: give a BT26 6 postcode for the van.
Shifting the vehicle is not needed. The drain happens on the spot, be it a driveway, a road by a street just off the centre, or a lay-by on the way to the green space at the edge of the village. Assuming won't help behind the far end of the built-up part, on a border, or somewhere hard to pin down; ring and check.
The short version for Magheraconluce motorists
Before you pour, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it waits, anywhere around County Down.