Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Martinscroft: Why It Happens
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case put this page aside for now, keep your ignition and motor off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Normally, if the motor has not turned, it's emptied and fully cleaned where your vehicle sits in Martinscroft. The rest of this page explains why it takes place and how to ensure it does not — useful if you are reading before it has happened.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Plenty of current diesels on the roads round Martinscroft and Paddington carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust stream and cleans it.
There's a filler for every tank. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, the diesel side gets filled all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less regularly, usually from a bottle, and usually by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen in Martinscroft?
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Bowfell Grove before work, or in the car park outside Rope & Anchor on the way home.
Then the car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
No part stops the pour after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Martinscroft or out in Grange.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Statham or a forecourt around Martinscroft, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- The size. On many cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- Can't see it next to the diesel inlet? In that case check beneath the bonnet or in your boot — the handbook will say which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Birchwood, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
On the day the warning appears — wherever you are around Cheshire — a routine to use.
- Pull in on level, engine off, with time in hand — never hurried on the side of Battery Lane.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, perhaps, yet it does the trick.
- The two behind one flap? Then make sure the lid on the diesel filler is still shut before raising the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, then check once more — making sure the diesel cap stayed closed throughout. Only then, start your car.
Find at the second or third step that AdBlue went in the diesel tank? That's where you stop. Skip stage five entirely.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Martinscroft?
Short list, then. Top of that: your motor stays off. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch it on. Topping up with diesel will not weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of that tank, right where the fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — EG On the Move, Asda or another — the staff will usually help roll the vehicle away, if you ask. Your own drive in Martinscroft is where it stays.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. The next exit is where to leave if you're on the Woolston Interchange, under a mile from Martinscroft. Distance matters — a quick hop across Martinscroft is a smaller job than driving under 15 miles towards Salford — so tell us roughly how far it went.
What occurs when our technicians arrive around Martinscroft
Anywhere the vehicle has stopped, be it outside Woolston CofE Aided Primary School, near Woolston War Memorial or on your own drive, our van comes to it. Our engineers ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it has run, because the answers determine the work and our price. No one heads out before you've heard our price over the phone.
Draining the tank comes next, followed by a thorough 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, and so it does not wash out on its own. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Then our technicians start it and check it runs properly before leaving.
If the engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. No money in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. It's worth looking at your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Martinscroft and where it is
Martinscroft is a suburban area in Cheshire, situated on the riverside with an elevation of around 13 metres. Martinscroft lies near several neighbouring communities, including Grange, Woolston, and Thelwall, and is approximately 10.8 miles from the city of Salford. Martinscroft has a population of around 1556 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Martinscroft is also relatively distant from London, at a distance of around 164.8 miles.
AdBlue drains around Martinscroft, and Cheshire beyond
Woolston and Thelwall are among the towns near Martinscroft, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, over WA postcodes. A postcode starting WA1 4 gets our van to you fastest.
Moving the car isn't necessary. Anywhere it sits — beside Roman Catholic Church of Saints Peter and Michael, in a lay-by en route to Martinscroft Green, on a drive — that's where it is emptied. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Star Gun Club? By a border? Asking is better than assuming, and so phone.
In short, for Martinscroft motorists
Read the cap before you tip. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Leave the vehicle switched off and call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, across Cheshire.