Mill Dam: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and your ignition off and call 0333 366 0103. Normally, when your engine hasn't turned, it is drained and fully rinsed where the vehicle sits around Mill Dam. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it does not.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Many modern diesels on the roads around Mill Dam and Westoe carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust gas and cleans it.
Different tanks, different fillers. 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. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. Rarely topped up, AdBlue normally comes from a bottle, tipped by someone who must stop and think what cap to use. Mistakes happen in that gap between them.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Mill Dam: how it occurs
Carelessness rarely explains it. What does is three things coming up together.
On a drive off Nile Street before work, or in the car park at Trimmers Arms Live Lounge heading home: that's where the hurried top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low the vehicle warns you, and once it is gone, limp mode kicks in.
Then, the hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old car — because a rental car, a new motor or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
A spouted bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, once begun, carries on. Whether it occurs in High Shields or the middle of Mill Dam, it is the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in The Lawe or a forecourt in Mill Dam, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Check the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue ones are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually are not.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows where it lives if your filler is not next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The previous driver knows. Ask when you collect a rental or company car — from Brockley Whins's car park, say — not once the warning appears.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
Wherever around Tyne and Wear the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Tudor Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where the two share a flap, confirm it is shut before lifting the bottle.
- Stop when your tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; before that, pour slowly using its built-in spout.
- Only after that, start the car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Don't go on to step five.
Mill Dam: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
The short order of things, starting with not starting the engine. Keep the ignition off as well, because on many diesels switching it on alone runs your fuel pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is sucked from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
Ask the staff to help push the vehicle clear of the pump if you are on a forecourt — the Asda, the another forecourt nearby or anywhere else. Your own drive around Mill Dam is the place it should stay.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Leave the A194(M) — under 5 miles out of Mill Dam — at the next junction. A short hop across Mill Dam is a smaller job than a run towards Sunderland, under 10 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
When we turn up around Mill Dam, what happens?
Our engineers come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside St Bede's Catholic Primary School, South Shields, close to Holy Trinity Church or on your own drive. Both the work and the price depend on three answers — which liquid, what quantity, and whether it has run — so our technicians ask. You get that quote by phone, before anybody heads out.
Next: a drain, then a full flush of the whole system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and none of it clears out unaided. Hence it matters more. After your filter has been cleaned — or replaced, where required — clean diesel is added, and then your car is tested. We do not go until it has been started and is running properly.
Unstarted vehicles usually mean a half-hour job from the moment we arrive. The equipment is safe on a busy filling station, and hushed enough for a residential street after dark. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents your insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Before we get there, have a look at your policy; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Mill Dam
Mill Dam is a coastal suburban area in Tyne and Wear, situated near the mouth of the River Tyne. Mill Dam sits at a low elevation of around 17 metres, close to the nearby towns of High Shields and South Shields. Mill Dam is characterized by its predominantly flat-type housing, which is typical of many coastal areas in the North East of England. Mill Dam is located approximately 6.6 miles from the city of Sunderland, and about 246.8 miles from London.
AdBlue drains round Mill Dam, and Tyne and Wear beyond
Throughout NE postcodes, the teams that cover Mill Dam — a residential suburb — work the nearby places too, Tyne Dock and South Shields included. Quickest of all: give a NE33 1 postcode for the van.
No need to shift the vehicle. The drain takes place right there, be it a drive, a road by South Tyneside Magistrates' Court and Family Court, or a layby towards Portberry Memorial Park. Assuming won't help behind Al Azhar Mosque, close to a border, or somewhere hard to pin down; ring and ask.
The short version for Mill Dam drivers
Before you tip, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave it off then call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it waits, anywhere in Tyne and Wear.