Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Moira: Why It Occurs
Leave the motor and ignition off and call 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. A drain and a thorough flush, done right where your car stands in Moira, is usually all it needs if caught before your motor runs. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the page explains the reasons it occurs and the how to avoid it for good.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Plenty of newer diesels around Maghaberry, like those in Moira, carry on two liquids; the motor gets just the diesel. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank comes with one filler of its own. Other vehicles keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others have the two together under one flap. The diesel side is topped up at the pump all the time. Seldom filled, AdBlue usually goes in out of a bottle, tipped by a driver who must stop and think what filler it needs. That gap is where the slip lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Moira: how it happens
Carelessness seldom explains it. What does is three things coming up at once.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from your car, and running dry leads to limp mode — so a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Heugh Road, or outside the pub in the village on the way home after work.
Then the car is new. 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.
Third, the spout goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in as easily, and once the tip begins, no part stops it. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Moira or out in Magheralin.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Look at these first, at a forecourt around Moira or a driveway out in Dollingstown. Seconds, that's all.
- Check the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually aren't.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of motors, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside the fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Look for it.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by the diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at the nearest station, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
Anywhere in County Down the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Dunskey Street, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park and switch off properly.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Finish when that tank fills or the bottle runs dry; before that, pour slowly through its built-in spout.
- Before starting the vehicle, shut the cap and look a second time that your diesel cap never came off.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Stage five is off limits.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Moira?
Don't start the engine: that's where the short order of things starts. Don't switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it's the the nearest petrol station or the another forecourt nearby, ask the staff to help push your car away from the pump. If you are on your own drive in Moira, leave the car where it is.
Already started? Pull over when it is safe, then switch off. On the M77, over 50 miles from Moira, that means the next exit. About how far did it go? Hopping across Moira is less a job than a trip of under 10 miles towards Lisburn, and so tell us.
Moira: what happens when our technicians get there
Anywhere the vehicle came to rest, whether by the local primary school, beside the centre or at home, our van comes to it. Our technicians ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it's run, since the replies determine this work and the quote. You get that price by phone, before anybody sets off.
Your system is then rinsed thoroughly, after that tank is cleared. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and neither clears out by itself. That is why it counts more. The filter flushed or, where it must be, swapped; clean diesel in; and then a test of your car. Your engine is fired up next and tested to confirm it runs properly, all before our engineers leave.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour after we arrive, as long as your engine has not run — and the pumps our technicians use are fine on a busy forecourt yet quiet at night outside a house. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents your insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Moira itself
Moira is a locality in County Down, situated inland at an elevation of 72 metres, approximately 8 miles from Lisburn. Moira is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its residential nature. Moira sits near several nearby places, including Magheralin, Ballymacmaine, and Lurganville, in the wider Northern Ireland region.
Moira and County Down: AdBlue drains across the area
Moira is a small village, and the vans that cover it also work the places around it, Ballymacmaine and Lurganville among them, across the BT postcode area. A postcode starting BT67 0 gets our van to you fastest.
The car stays put. A drive, a lay-by on the way to the green space at the edge of the village, a side street close to a street just off the centre: our engineers drain the car where it is. Assuming doesn't help at the back of the far end of the built-up part, close to a border, or anywhere awkward to describe; phone and check.
In short, for Moira people
Before you tip, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere in County Down, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway — and so leave the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103.