Newcastle-under-Lyme: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and your ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103. A drain and a full flush, carried out right where the vehicle sits around Newcastle-under-Lyme, is normally what it needs if caught before the motor runs. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Many modern diesels on the roads around Newcastle-under-Lyme and Westlands carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust gas and cleans it.
Different tanks, different fillers. Under one flap, side by side: that is the arrangement on a lot of cars. On others, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in your boot instead. At the petrol pump, the diesel side is topped up all the time. Much less frequently, the AdBlue side is topped up — mostly from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. That gap is where the mistake lives.
Newcastle-under-Lyme: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off High Street before work, or in the car park outside Lymestone Vaults on the way home.
Then, the hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old vehicle — since a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where 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, so nothing stops the tip once it has started. Whether it occurs in Poolfields or the middle of Newcastle-under-Lyme, it's the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A few seconds is all these take — so check them before you pour anything, on a drive in Cross Heath or a forecourt around Newcastle-under-Lyme.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually isn't. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- The size. On plenty of motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the 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 is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at Stoke-On-Trent, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
For the day the light appears — wherever it is in Staffordshire — a routine to use.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Lad Lane.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" out loud while unscrewing it. It seems daft. It works.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before starting your car, shut the cap and check again that your diesel cap never opened off.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Stage five stays out.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Newcastle-under-Lyme?
Do not start your motor: that is how the short order of things starts. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels as soon as the ignition is switched on — so keep it off. Diluting it with more diesel fails, because AdBlue sinks to the base rather than blending — and that's where the fuel is sucked from.
On a forecourt — Morrisons, Texaco or another — the attendants will usually help push the vehicle clear, if you ask. Your own drive in Newcastle-under-Lyme is where it stays.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. The next junction is the place to leave if you are on the M6, under 3 miles from Newcastle-under-Lyme. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Stoke-on-Trent, under 3 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Newcastle-under-Lyme.
Newcastle-under-Lyme: what occurs when our technicians turn up
Anywhere the car has stopped, whether by Hassell Primary School, beside Newcastles Branded Outlet or on your own drive, our van comes to it. The replies determine this work and our price, so we ask what got in, about how much, and if it's run. On the call itself, you are told our quote — before anything else.
The system is then rinsed thoroughly, after the tank is cleared. 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 matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. The filter flushed or, where it must be, swapped; clean diesel in; and then a check of the vehicle. We do not go until it has been started and is running correctly.
With pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your motor hasn't run take about half an hour after our technicians arrive. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Misfuelling cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Newcastle-under-Lyme and where it is
Newcastle-under-Lyme is a town in Staffordshire, situated on the River Lyme, with a mix of semi-detached housing and other residential areas. Newcastle-under-Lyme sits near the city of Stoke-on-Trent, with which it forms a large urban conurbation. Newcastle-under-Lyme has a population of around 25996 people and is located at an elevation of 133 metres, near the villages of Poolfields, The Brampton, and Basford. Newcastle-under-Lyme is approximately 136.7 miles from London, making it a significant settlement in the West Midlands region.
AdBlue drains across Staffordshire, Newcastle-under-Lyme included
Throughout ST postcodes, our teams that cover Newcastle-under-Lyme — a riverside town — work the surrounding spots too, Basford and The Brampton included. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting ST5 1.
No need to shift the vehicle. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Queen's Gardens, a side street near Roebuck Shopping Centre: our technicians drain the vehicle where it sits. Assuming doesn't help behind War Memorial, close to a border, or anywhere awkward to pin down; phone and ask.
Newcastle-under-Lyme drivers: the short version
First, the cap; then, the pour. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Keep it switched off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, throughout Staffordshire.