AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in New Brighton: Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It
Leave your motor and ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Around New Brighton, catching it before your motor turns normally leaves a drain and a full flush where it stands. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it does not.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Many newer diesels on the roads round New Brighton and Poulton carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, and there spraying cleans the gas.
Each tank has its own filler. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled on each filling station visit, week in, week out. Much less commonly, the AdBlue side is topped up — normally from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. That gap is where the mistake lives.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank happens around New Brighton
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
On a drive off Fern Hill before work, or in the car park at Sandridge Hotel on the way home: that is where the hurried top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low your car tells you, and if it is gone, limp mode kicks in.
Next, the hand goes for the cap it knew on the old vehicle — because a hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
No part halts the pour after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it occurs in Liscard or the middle of New Brighton, it is the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Look at these before pouring, on a forecourt around New Brighton or a drive out in Seacombe. A few seconds, no more.
- Position can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually do not.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many motors say there which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler sits if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park outside the nearest station? Ask whoever drove the car last before leaving, rather than when the light goes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
Anywhere in Merseyside the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of St George's Mount.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you have found the filler and read it.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Stop once your tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; until then, tip gently through the built-in spout.
- Before starting the car, close the cap and look again that your diesel cap was never came off.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Step five stays out.
New Brighton: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Short order, then. Top of it: your engine stays unstarted. Don't switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Thinning it with more diesel won't work, since AdBlue settles to the base instead of blending — and that's where your fuel is sucked from.
On a forecourt — Asda, Texaco or any other — the attendants will normally help push your car away, if you ask. Your own drive in New Brighton is the place it stays.
Where the motor has been run already, pull over somewhere safe then turn the car off. Come off the Kingsway — under 3 miles out of New Brighton — at the first junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Liverpool, under 5 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across New Brighton.
What happens when we arrive around New Brighton
By New Brighton Primary School, close to Emmanuel Church or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, our engineers come to it. The answers decide the work and our price, and so our technicians ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it has run. You hear that quote on the phone, before anybody sets off.
Then your tank is emptied and your system rinsed thoroughly. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own. After your filter has been cleaned — or renewed, where required — fresh diesel is added, and then the vehicle gets tested. The engine is fired up next and tested to be sure it runs smoothly, all before our engineers go.
Unrun cars usually need a half-hour job after arrival. The equipment is fine on a busy filling station, and quiet enough for a residential street late at night. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents your insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — so make use of the wait to check yours.
About New Brighton itself
New Brighton is a coastal suburban area in Merseyside, situated on the Wirral Peninsula, with Liscard, Wallasey, and Egremont nearby. New Brighton has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are predominant, and the area is relatively low-lying at around 48 metres above sea level. New Brighton is close to Liverpool, being only 3.2 miles away, and is part of the larger North West England region. New Brighton has a population of approximately 10622 residents.
AdBlue drains across Merseyside, New Brighton included
Wallasey and Egremont are among the towns near New Brighton, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, over CH postcodes. A postcode starting CH45 5 gets our van to you fastest.
The car doesn't need to move. Anywhere it stands — beside St James & Emmanuel, in a layby heading to Quarry Park, on a drive — that's where it is cleared. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of New Brighton Community Centre, ring and ask instead of assuming.
New Brighton people: the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Keep the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, throughout Merseyside.