Why It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in New Manchester
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and the ignition off and call 0333 366 0103. Caught before your motor runs, it is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around New Manchester. The remainder of this page covers why it takes place and how to make sure it does not — useful if you are reading ahead of time.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Plenty of newer diesels around Parr Fold, as well as New Manchester, run on two liquids; the motor gets only the diesel. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust gas and cleans it.
Every tank comes with a filler of its own. Some vehicles put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty more have both side by side behind one flap. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. Much less often, the AdBlue side gets filled — normally from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. The mistake grows in the gap between the two.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank happen in New Manchester?
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Hurry comes from the warning. Your car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a drive off Lower New Row, or heading home in the car park outside Boundary Stone.
Then, your hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old motor — because a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the pour once it has started. It's a few seconds, be it in Ellenbrook or bang in the centre of New Manchester.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Check these first, on a forecourt around New Manchester or a drive over in Mosley Common. A few seconds, no more.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Look inside the fuel flap: plenty of cars have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- Cannot find it next to the diesel inlet? In that case look below the bonnet or inside the boot — the handbook says where.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Walkden.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
The day the light goes on, anywhere around Greater Manchester, use this routine.
- Pull in on level, motor off, with time in hand — not rushing on the side of Kinnerly Grove.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" out loud while unscrewing it. It seems silly. It does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the vehicle on.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the vehicle, close the cap and check a second time that your diesel cap was never opened off.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Step five is out.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in New Manchester?
Don't start the engine: that's where the short order of things starts. The fuel pump runs on many diesels the moment your ignition is switched on — and so leave it off. Diluting it with more diesel won't work, since AdBlue sinks to the bottom rather than blending — and that is where the fuel is drawn from.
The staff at Esso, Essar or another forecourt will normally help pushing the vehicle away if asked. If you are on your own drive around New Manchester, leave it where it stands.
Where the motor has run already, stop safely then switch it off. The next junction is the place to leave when you're on the M60, under 3 miles from New Manchester. Mileage matters — a short hop across New Manchester makes a smaller job than driving under 10 miles to Salford — so tell us roughly how far it went.
What takes place when we get there around New Manchester
We come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside St John's CofE Primary School Mosley Common, close to Common Head Farm or on your own driveway. Our engineers ask what got in, about how much, and whether it has run, since the answers settle this work and the quote. During the call itself, you hear our price — before dispatch.
Next: a drain, then a full 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 the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. Filter flushed or, where needed, replaced; clean diesel in; then a check of your vehicle. Before we leave, our engineers fire it up and confirm that it is running properly.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour once our engineers get there, provided your engine hasn't run — and the pumps our technicians use are fine on a live forecourt and quiet at night beside a house. Nothing upfront; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. It's worth looking at your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About New Manchester, briefly
New Manchester is a small village in Greater Manchester, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 58 metres. New Manchester lies near the cities of Salford and Manchester, with nearby places including Ellenbrook, Engine Fold, and Parr Brow. New Manchester has a population of around 559 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. New Manchester is located approximately 168.9 miles northwest of London.
New Manchester and Greater Manchester: AdBlue drains across the area
New Manchester is a village, and the teams that cover it also work the places around it, Engine Fold and Parr Brow among them, across the M postcode area. A postcode starting M28 1 gets the van to you fastest.
No need to move the vehicle. Wherever it sits — near St Mary Ellenbrook, in a layby en route to New Manchester Woods (Ellenbrook Brickworks), on a drive — that's where it gets cleared. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Mosley Common Colliery Commemorative Wheel.
New Manchester drivers: the short version
Always, the cap; after that, the tip. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave the car off and call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it sits, anywhere around Greater Manchester.