Moreton: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then put this page aside for now, leave your ignition and motor off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before your motor runs, it's generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Moreton. Here in advance? In that case what follows explains how it comes about and what to stop it happening at all.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Diesel goes to the motor — but many current diesels seen round Moreton and Beechwood carry a second liquid too. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, side by side: that's the arrangement on a lot of cars. On others, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in the boot instead. At the pump, your diesel side gets filled constantly. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less commonly. It's in the gap that the mistake lives.
Moreton: how AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from the vehicle, and running dry means limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Pasture Road, or at Coach & Horses on the way home after work.
Then, your hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old car — since a hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
Third, the spout goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in just as readily, and once the tip starts, no part halts it. Saughall Massie or the heart of Moreton: it is the same few seconds either way.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a drive in Upton Meadow or a forecourt in Moreton.
- Check the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue caps are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually aren't.
- On many vehicles, the size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your 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 vehicle last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at Moreton (Merseyside), ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
Anywhere across Merseyside the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Pull in on level, engine off, with time in hand — not hurried on the side of Upton Road.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, yes, yet it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Before you start the car, shut the cap and look again that the diesel cap never opened off.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Never go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Moreton already?
Don't start your motor: that's how the short order of things begins. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels the moment your ignition goes on — and so keep it off. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is pulled from.
The attendants at Shell, BP or another forecourt will usually help pushing the vehicle away if asked. On your own drive around Moreton? So the vehicle remains where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the motor has already run. The next exit is where to come off when you are on the M53, under a mile from Moreton. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Liverpool, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Moreton.
When our technicians turn up around Moreton, what occurs?
By Moreton Christ Church CofE Primary School, near Christ Church or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, we come to it. The answers decide the work and our price, so we ask what got in, about how much, and whether it's run. You hear that price on the phone, before anyone sets off.
Next: draining, then a full flush of the whole 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 counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. A test comes last: before that, clean diesel is added, and the fuel filter is flushed or replaced as needed. We don't leave until it has been fired up and is running properly.
If the engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Nothing in advance; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Moreton and where it is
Moreton is a coastal suburban area in Merseyside, situated near the city of Liverpool and close to the nearby places of Saughall Massie, Leasowe, and Upton. Moreton has a population of around 7155 people and is characterised by its predominant semi-detached housing stock. Moreton sits at a low elevation of 12 metres above sea level, reflecting its coastal setting. Moreton is located approximately 181 miles northwest of London, but is much closer to the major city of Liverpool, which is just 5.5 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Merseyside, Moreton included
Over CH postcodes, our teams covering Moreton — a residential suburb — work the nearby spots too, Upton and Leasowe included. Quote a postcode beginning CH46 0, and our van gets there quickest.
The car remains where it is. Wherever it stands — near Moreton Library One Stop Shop, on a lay-by heading to Upton Park, at home — that's where it is drained. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Moreton Presbyterian Church, ring and ask rather than guessing.
In short, for Moreton motorists
Pour nothing till you have read the cap. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it where it stands, wherever across Merseyside: keep it off then ring 0333 366 0103.