Why It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Moston
Stop here a minute if your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Normally, when the engine hasn't turned, it is emptied and thoroughly rinsed where your vehicle sits around Moston. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it does not.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Diesel goes to the engine — yet plenty of modern diesels seen round Moston and Harpurhey carry another liquid too. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust gas and cleans it.
Each tank has a filler of its own. Under one flap, side by side: that is the layout on a lot of motors. On others, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in the boot instead. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. Much less commonly, the AdBlue side gets filled — mostly from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen in Moston?
Carelessness rarely explains it. What does is three things coming up at once.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Arbory Avenue before work, or in the car park outside The Railway on the way home.
New-to-you motors are second, as well. Rentals, new vehicles and company vehicles place their fillers differently, and the hand reaches for the cap it used on the old one.
Third, the bottle goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in as easily, and once the pour starts, no part halts it. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Moston or out in New Moston.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Check these before pouring, at a forecourt in Moston or a drive over in Newton Heath. A few seconds, no more.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue ones are often blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally do not.
- On plenty of motors, the size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Check inside your fuel flap: many vehicles have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler sits if it's not by the diesel cap, 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 outside the nearest station, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
On the day the warning appears — anywhere you are in Greater Manchester — a simple routine to use.
- Switch off after you park — level ground, engine off, and never rushed beside Bluestone Road on the verge.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after 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, until it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Only then, start your car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Spot at stage two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? Then stop just there. Never carry on to step five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Moston already?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your motor. Don't switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Thinning it with extra diesel fails, since AdBlue settles to the bottom instead of blending — and that's where the fuel is sucked from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it's the Texaco or the Shell, ask the staff to help push your car away from the pump. If you are on your own driveway in Moston, leave the car where it stands.
When the engine has run by now, pull over somewhere safe then turn the car off. On the M60, under 3 miles from Moston, that means the next exit. Mileage counts — a short hop across Moston is a smaller job than heading under 5 miles to Manchester — so tell us roughly how far it went.
Moston: what happens when our engineers get there
Anywhere the car has stopped, whether by Moston Fields Primary School, near Broadhurst Park or on your own drive, the van comes to it. Our technicians ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it's run, because the answers determine this work and the quote. On the phone call itself, you hear the price — ahead of dispatch.
Your system is then cleaned thoroughly, once that tank is emptied. More than with petrol, it counts here: crystals build up, some metals corrode, and none of it clears out unaided, however long it sits. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. After that our engineers fire it up and check it runs properly before leaving.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour after our technicians arrive, as long as your motor has not run — and the pumps we use are safe on a live forecourt yet quiet after dark outside a house. No money upfront; you settle up that day. At the end, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. Misfuelling cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — so use the wait to check yours.
About Moston, for a moment
Moston is a suburban area in Greater Manchester, situated near the River Irk and approximately 3.4 miles from Manchester city centre. Moston sits at an elevation of around 98 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation in the area. Moston is close to nearby places such as New Moston, Charlestown, and Failsworth, and is home to a population of around 7309 people. Moston is located in the North West region of England, about 163.4 miles from London.
Moston and Greater Manchester: AdBlue drains across the area
Moston is a residential suburb, and our teams that cover it also work the towns near it, Charlestown and Failsworth among them, across the M postcode area. A postcode starting M40 5 gets our van to you fastest.
No need to move your car. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Broadhurst Park, a side street close to Moston Methodist Church: our technicians drain the vehicle where it sits. Awkward to explain, like the back of St Luke? By a border? Asking beats guessing, so ring.
The short version for Moston people
Always, the cap; then, the pour. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere across Greater Manchester, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — and so leave it off then phone 0333 366 0103.