Mill Hill: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Leave the engine and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Usually, if your engine hasn't run, it is drained and fully rinsed where your car sits around Mill Hill. Reading in advance? Then what follows explains why it comes about and how to prevent it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
No single fluid but two: that is how plenty of newer diesels near Mill Hill and Bolton carry, with diesel feeding your motor. The exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the gas to clean it, from a separate tank.
Different tanks, separate fillers. 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. Diesel goes in on every filling station visit, again and again. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less often. It is in that gap that the mistake lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Mill Hill: how it takes place
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out completely, your vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Tonge Bridge Way before work, or in the car park outside Lord Clyde on the way home.
Next, your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old motor — since a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers where your last one did not.
Third, the spout goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in just as readily, and after the tip begins, no part halts it. Whether it takes place in Tonge Moor or the middle of Mill Hill, it is the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Check these first, at a forecourt in Mill Hill or a driveway over in Oaken Bottom. A few seconds, no more.
- Read the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually are not.
- On plenty of cars, size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- Cannot find it beside your diesel filler? Then check beneath the bonnet or inside the boot — the owner's manual will say where.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park at Bolton? Check with the person who drove the car last before you set off, not once the light goes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Greater Manchester that is.
- Pull in on level, motor off, with time to spare — not rushing on the side of Mule Street.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, yes, yet it works.
- 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 is full or the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the vehicle, close the cap and check again that your diesel cap never opened off.
Find at the second or third step that AdBlue went in the diesel tank? That is where you stop. Step five is off limits.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Mill Hill?
Don't start your motor: that is where the short order of things starts. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels as soon as the ignition goes on — so keep it off. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is sucked from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
The staff at Esso, BP or another forecourt will usually help pushing the vehicle clear when you ask. If you are on your own drive in Mill Hill, leave the vehicle where it is.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Come off the St. Peter's Way — under 3 miles out of Mill Hill — at the first exit. A short hop across Mill Hill is a smaller job than a run towards Salford, under 10 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
Mill Hill: what takes place when our engineers turn up
Our engineers come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Bolton Parish Church, Church of England Primary School, close to The Bridge Church or on your own driveway. Our engineers ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether it has run, since those replies settle this work and our price. During the phone call itself, you are told our price — before dispatch.
Next: a drain, then a thorough flush of the entire system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that matters more here than with petrol. Testing comes at the end: before that, clean diesel goes in, and the fuel filter is flushed or replaced as needed. Before we go, we fire it up and make sure that it is running correctly.
With pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where the engine hasn't run take about half an hour after our technicians are there. The insurer usually wants the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. It's worth looking at your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Mill Hill
Mill Hill is a suburban area in Greater Manchester, situated near the River Irwell and close to the cities of Salford and Manchester. Mill Hill sits at an elevation of around 90 metres, with Tonge Moor, Springfield, and Tonge Fold nearby. Mill Hill has a population of approximately 4763 people, predominantly living in terraced housing. Mill Hill is located about 8.6 miles from Salford and 172.6 miles from London.
AdBlue drains in Mill Hill and across Greater Manchester
Springfield and Tonge Fold are among the towns around Mill Hill, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, throughout BL postcodes. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting BL2 2.
The vehicle does not need to move. We drain it where it is — a side street close to Bolton Parish Church, a lay-by on the way to Tonge River Section SSSI, a driveway. Tricky to explain, like the back of Bolton Spiritualist Church? Close to a border? Checking beats assuming, and so ring.
The short version for Mill Hill people
Tip nothing until you have read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it stands, anywhere across Greater Manchester.