AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Newburn: How It Occurs and How to Stop It
Keep the engine and ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Caught before your motor runs, it's generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Newburn. The remainder of this page explains why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't — useful if you're reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel goes to your engine — yet plenty of modern diesels driven round Newburn and Crookhill hold another liquid as well. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There's a filler for each tank. Under one flap, side by side: that is the arrangement on many vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less often. It is in the gap that the slip happens.
Newburn: how AdBlue in the diesel tank happens
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the car, and letting it run dry leads to limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, maybe before work off High Street, or at The Keelman on the way home that evening.
New-to-you cars are second, as well. Rentals, new vehicles and company motors put their fillers differently, and the hand goes for the cap it used on the old one.
Nothing halts the pour once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Walbottle or the middle of Newburn: it takes the same few seconds in both.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Throckley or a forecourt around Newburn, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually do not.
- Plenty of motors give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- Cannot find it beside the diesel filler? In that case look below the bonnet or in your boot — the owner's manual will say which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Blaydon? Check with the person who drove the vehicle last before you set off, rather than once the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
Anywhere across Tyne and Wear the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Turn off after you park — level ground, engine off, and not in a rush beside Newburn Road at the roadside.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you have found the filler and read the cap.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start the vehicle: close the cap, check again, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Stage five is off limits.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Newburn?
The short order of things, beginning with not starting the engine. Leave your ignition off too, because on plenty of diesels it alone starts your pump. Diluting it with more diesel won't work, since AdBlue sinks to the bottom rather than blending — and that's where your fuel is pulled from.
The staff at Gulf, Shell or any forecourt will usually lend a hand pushing the car away when you ask. At home around Newburn? Then your car stays where it is.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. The next junction means the place to come off if you're on the Central Motorway East, under 10 miles from Newburn. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Newcastle upon Tyne, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Newburn.
Our arrival around Newburn, and what happens next
Our engineers come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Newburn Manor Primary School, near Newburn Library or on your own driveway. What fluid was put in, the quantity, and whether it ran: we ask since those answers decide the work and quote. During the call itself, you hear the price — ahead of dispatch.
Your system is then cleaned thoroughly, once that tank is cleared. 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 does not wash out on its own. The filter flushed or, where needed, replaced; clean diesel in; and then a test of the vehicle. We don't leave until it has been started and is running smoothly.
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 busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. The insurer usually wants an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. It's worth checking your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Newburn, briefly
Newburn is a village situated on the north bank of the River Tyne in Tyne and Wear, approximately 5 miles from Newcastle upon Tyne. Newburn sits at a low elevation of around 20 metres above sea level, with the river flowing through the village. Newburn is characterised by its terraced housing and is located near other settlements such as Walbottle and Stella. Newburn has a population of around 1475 people and is part of the wider Newcastle upon Tyne urban area.
Newburn and Tyne and Wear: AdBlue drains across the area
Newburn is a village, and the vans that cover it also work the towns around it, Stella and Hedgefield among them, across the NE postcode area. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting NE15 8.
The vehicle remains where it is. Anywhere it sits — beside St Michael & All Angels Church, in a layby en route to Tyne Riverside Sensory Community Garden, at home — that is where it gets drained. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Tyne Rowing Club, ring and ask rather than guessing.
Newburn people: the short version
First, the cap; then, the tip. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Leave the car off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, throughout Tyne and Wear.