Why It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Messingham
Keep your motor and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Normally, if the motor has not run, it's drained and thoroughly flushed where your car sits in Messingham. Reading before the event? In that case the rest covers how it happens and how to stop it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Plenty of newer diesels in Scotter, as well as Messingham, carry on two liquids; the engine takes only your diesel. The exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the fumes to clean them, from its own tank.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the layout on a lot of motors. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in the boot instead. At the petrol pump, the diesel side is topped up constantly. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less regularly. That gap is where the mistake lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank happens in Messingham
Carelessness seldom explains it. What does is three things coming up together.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from the vehicle, and letting it run dry means limp mode — so a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Cross Tree Lane, perhaps at Green Tree Inn on the way home after work.
Then the vehicle is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, 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, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it takes place in Yaddlethorpe or the middle of Messingham, it is the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Look at these first, at a forecourt in Messingham or a drive over in Riddings. Seconds, no more.
- 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.
- On many cars, size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Open the filler flap and look for a label — many vehicles show which goes in each filler right there.
- The handbook says where it lives when your filler isn't next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- 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 Kirton Lindsey.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Lincolnshire that is.
- Stop on level, engine off, with time to spare — never hurried on the side of Well Street.
- 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? Then make sure the cap on your diesel side stays shut ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start your car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Discover at the second or third step that AdBlue went in the wrong tank? That is where you stop. Stage five stays out.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Messingham already?
Do not start the engine: that is how the short order of things starts. Keep the ignition off too, since on plenty of diesels switching it on by itself runs the fuel pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is sucked from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it is the JET or the another forecourt nearby, ask the staff to help roll the car clear of the petrol pump. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive around Messingham.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the engine has already run. Messingham lies under a mile from the M180; there, take the next exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Doncaster, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Messingham.
When we get there in Messingham, what takes place?
Anywhere your car has stopped, be it by Messingham Primary School, near Messingham Library or at home, the van travels to it. Our technicians ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it's run, because those replies settle this work and our price. Nobody sets off until you have had the price over the phone.
Emptying your tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. The filter flushed or, where needed, replaced; clean diesel in; and then a test of your car. We do not leave until it has been fired up and is running properly.
Unstarted vehicles mostly mean a half-hour job after arrival. The equipment is safe on a live forecourt, and hushed enough for a driveway late at night. 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 policy; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Messingham, for a moment
Messingham is a village in north Lincolnshire, situated in a low-lying area near the Humberhead Levels. Messingham has a population of around 2340 people and is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock. Messingham sits approximately 35 metres above sea level and is located near several other small villages, including Yaddlethorpe and Bottesford.
Messingham and Lincolnshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout DN postcodes, our vans covering Messingham — a rural village — work the nearby spots too, Scotterthorpe and Bottesford included. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting DN17 3.
There's no need to move the vehicle. Draining happens on the spot, be it a drive, a street by Messingham Hall, or a layby on the way to Holme Plantation. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Messingham Church, Holy Trinity, ring and ask rather than guessing.
Messingham drivers: the short version
Pour no AdBlue until you have read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Keep the vehicle switched off then call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, throughout Lincolnshire.