Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Metheringham: Why It Occurs
Stop here a minute if your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. Around Metheringham, finding it before your engine runs usually means a drain and a full flush where it stands. Not happened yet? Further down, the page explains the reasons it occurs and the ways to prevent it for good.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
No single liquid but two: that's what many modern diesels around Metheringham and Scopwick run, with diesel feeding your motor. Your exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the gas to clean it, from its own tank.
There's a filler for every tank. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in on each filling station visit, week in, week out. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less regularly. It's in that gap that the mistake happens.
Metheringham: how AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place
Carelessness rarely explains it. What does is three things lining up together.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from your car, and letting it run dry leads to limp mode — so a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Middle Street, perhaps outside Star & Garter on the way home after work.
The old car's filler is where your hand reaches — but a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That is the second factor: a new motor.
A spout-topped bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, after begun, carries on. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Metheringham or out in Blankney.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Be it a Metheringham forecourt or a drive out in Wasps Nest, spend a few seconds over these before anything goes in.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps are often blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally do not.
- Many vehicles give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many cars say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows which it is if your filler is not next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park outside the nearest station? Check with the person who drove it last before leaving, rather than when the light goes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Lincolnshire that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of High Street, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park then switch off properly.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Find at the second or third stage that AdBlue went into the diesel filler? That is where you stop. Step five is off limits.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Metheringham?
Don't start the engine: that's how the short order of things begins. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch the car on. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is drawn from.
The staff at Texaco, L Brackenbury & Son Ltd or any forecourt will normally help pushing the car away if asked. If you're on your own driveway in Metheringham, leave it where it sits.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the motor has already run. Leave the M180 — under 50 miles out of Metheringham — at the first exit. Mileage counts — a quick hop across Metheringham makes a smaller job than heading under 10 miles to Lincoln — so say roughly how far it went.
Our arrival in Metheringham, and what takes place next
Outside The Metheringham Primary School, close to Metheringham Market Cross or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, our engineers come to it. Which fluid was put in, the quantity, and whether it ran: we ask since those answers decide both work and quote. No one heads out before you have heard the price by phone.
Draining your tank comes next, then a thorough flush of the fuel system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and none of that washes out by itself. That is why it matters more. The filter flushed or, where it must be, replaced; fresh diesel in; and then a test of your vehicle. Before leaving, our engineers fire it up and check that it's running correctly.
Using pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where your motor hasn't run take roughly half an hour after we arrive. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Metheringham, briefly
Metheringham is a village in Lincolnshire, situated approximately 8.6 miles south of Lincoln, and is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock. Metheringham sits in a low-lying area of the county, with an elevation of around 21 metres, and is surrounded by nearby places such as Blankney, Dunston, and Nocton. Metheringham has a population of around 2266 residents, and is located about 113.4 miles north of London.
Metheringham and Lincolnshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Dunston and Nocton are among the towns around Metheringham, a rural village, that the same teams cover, over LN postcodes. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting LN4 3.
The car remains put. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to playing fields, a side street close to Metheringham Village Hall: our technicians drain the vehicle where it sits. Assuming doesn't help at the back of Metheringham Methodist Church, on a border, or anywhere hard to describe; ring and check.
For Metheringham drivers, the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Leave the vehicle off then call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, throughout Lincolnshire.