Why It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Newlands
Stop here a minute when the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then phone 0333 366 0103. A drain and a full flush, done right where your car stands in Newlands, is usually all it takes if found before the engine runs. The remainder of this page explains why it occurs and how to ensure it does not — useful if you are reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Plenty of modern diesels in The Park, as well as Newlands, carry on two liquids; your engine gets just the diesel. The exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the gas to fresh them, from its own tank.
Each tank has its own filler. Other cars put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty more place both together under one flap. Diesel goes in on each forecourt call-out, week in, week out. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less commonly. Mistakes happen in the gap between them.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Newlands: how it occurs
It is seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out completely, your vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Clipstone Road East before work, or in the car park outside The White Gate on the way home.
Next, your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old motor — since a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
A spout-topped bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, after started, keeps on. Whether it happens in Clipstone or the middle of Newlands, it is the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Be it a Newlands forecourt or a drive over in Kings Clipstone, spend a few seconds over these before anything is poured in.
- Read the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally aren't.
- The size. On plenty of motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on many motors. Look for it.
- Cannot find it next to your diesel inlet? Then look below the bonnet or inside your boot — the handbook will say which.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Mansfield Woodhouse.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
On the day the warning appears — anywhere it is across Nottinghamshire — a routine to follow.
- Stop on level, motor off, with time in hand — never rushing on the side of Yew Tree Avenue.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, yes, yet it does the trick.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap, then look once more — confirm the diesel cap remained shut the whole time. After that, start the car.
Spot at step two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? So stop just there. Skip stage five altogether.
Newlands: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Brief order, then. Top of that: the motor stays off. Don't switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is sucked from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it is the BP or the Asda, ask the attendants to help roll the car away from the pump. Your own drive around Newlands is where it stays.
Already run? Stop when it is sensible, then turn off. Newlands lies under 10 miles from the M1; on it, take the first exit. About how far did it go? Hopping across Newlands is smaller work than a run of under 15 miles towards Nottingham, and so say.
Newlands: what takes place when our technicians get there
By John T Rice Infant and Nursery School, near Clipstone Village Hall or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our technicians come to it. The answers determine this work and our price, so our technicians ask what was put in, about how much, and if it's run. The price is given on the call, before any van leaves.
Then your tank is drained and the fuel system flushed thoroughly. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own. Testing comes last: before that, clean diesel goes in, and the fuel filter is flushed or changed as needed. Then we fire it up and make sure it runs correctly before we go.
Unrun cars usually mean a half-hour job after the moment we arrive. The equipment is fine on a busy forecourt, and quiet enough for a residential street late at night. Nothing in advance; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Newlands itself
Newlands is a village in Nottinghamshire, situated inland at an elevation of 102 metres, approximately 14 miles north of Nottingham. Newlands has a population of around 2435 people and is characterised by semi-detached housing. Newlands is located near other local places such as Clipstone, Forest Town, and Ravensdale, and is about 121.8 miles from London.
AdBlue drains around Newlands, and Nottinghamshire beyond
Forest Town and Ravensdale are among the towns near Newlands, a rural village, that the same vans cover, over NG postcodes. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting NG19 0.
Shifting your car isn't needed. Draining takes place right there, whether a drive, a street by Cenotaph, or a lay-by on the way to Garibaldi Plantation. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you are near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of All Saints Church.
For Newlands people, the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave the car off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it waits, anywhere around Nottinghamshire.