How It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Middleton
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case set this page down a moment, leave your ignition and motor off, then phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Middleton. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it does not.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Plenty of modern diesels on the roads round Middleton and Alkrington Garden Village carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. 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 each tank. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is fuelled at the petrol pump all the time. Rarely filled, AdBlue usually goes in from a bottle, tipped by someone who has to stop and think which cap to use. The slip lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank occur around Middleton?
Carelessness seldom causes it. Instead is three things lining up together.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out altogether, your vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off A664 before work, or in the car park at The Harbord Harbord on the way home.
Next, your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old car — since a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
A spout-topped bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, after begun, keeps on. Higher Boarshaw or the heart of Middleton: it takes the same few seconds either way.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Be it a Middleton forecourt or a driveway out in Moorclose, take a few seconds over these before anything is poured in.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- Look inside your fuel flap: plenty of motors carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says where it is when your filler isn't next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Mills Hill? Check with the person who drove the car last before you set off, rather than when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
Anywhere in Greater Manchester the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Long Street.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you've found the filler and read it.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start the vehicle: close the cap, check once more, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Discover during the second or third step that AdBlue went in the wrong filler? That is where you stop. Never go on to step five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Middleton?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with not starting your motor. Do not switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel will not dilute it: instead, AdBlue drops to the bottom of the tank, just where fuel is drawn from.
Ask the staff to help push your car clear of the pump if you are on a forecourt — the Tesco, the Esso or anywhere else. Your own drive in Middleton is the place it stays.
When the motor has run by now, pull over safely and switch the vehicle off. On the M60, under 3 miles from Middleton, that means the next exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Manchester, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Middleton.
Our arrival around Middleton, and what occurs next
Outside Parkfield Primary School, near Middleton Arena or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, our engineers come to it. The replies settle the work and our quote, so we ask what went in, roughly how much, and if it has run. On the phone call itself, you hear our quote — before anything else.
Emptying that tank comes next, then a full flush of the system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and neither washes out by itself. Hence it counts more. After your filter is cleaned — or renewed, if required — clean diesel goes in, and then your car gets tested. Your engine is fired up next and tested to make sure it runs smoothly, all before our technicians head off.
With pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the engine has not run need roughly half an hour after our technicians arrive. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork your insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Before we get there, take a look at your policy; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Middleton and where it is
Middleton is a town situated in Greater Manchester, England, with a riverside location on the River Irk. It is positioned near several neighbouring towns, including Rochdale and Manchester. The town has a distinct setting, bordered by other local areas such as Blackley and Moston. Middleton is a notable settlement in the region, with a range of local amenities and features.
AdBlue drains in Middleton and across Greater Manchester
Middleton is a riverside town, and the vans that cover it also work the places near it, Lime Field and Hollins among them, across the M postcode area. Quote a postcode that starts M24 6, and the van arrives fastest.
No need to shift your car. Wherever it stands — near Long Street Methodist Church, on a lay-by heading to Middleton Cons Crown Green Bowls Club, at home — that is where it is emptied. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Paul Scholes Mural, ring and ask rather than guessing.
For Middleton people, the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it where it is, anywhere across Greater Manchester: keep the car off then phone 0333 366 0103.