Newton Hall: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Pause reading a minute if the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Usually, when your engine has not turned, it's drained and thoroughly rinsed where the vehicle is around Newton Hall. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Many newer diesels on the roads round Newton Hall and North End carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, where spraying treats the gas.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is fuelled at the pump all the time. Rarely filled, AdBlue usually comes out of a bottle, tipped by someone who has to stop and think what cap it needs. Mistakes happen in that gap between the two.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank occur in Newton Hall?
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Canterbury Road before work, or in the car park at The Jovial Monk on the way home.
Then the car is new. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spouted bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, after begun, keeps on. Framwellgate Moor or the heart of Newton Hall: it is the same few seconds either way.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you pour anything, on a drive in Aykley Heads or a forecourt in Newton Hall.
- Check the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue caps are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally are not.
- On many motors, size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of cars say there which fuel goes where.
- Cannot find it next to your diesel filler? Then look below the bonnet or in your boot — the handbook will say where.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Durham.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Durham that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Chillingham Road, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park and switch off first.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It seems daft. It does the trick.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before you start your car, shut the cap and check again that the diesel cap was never came off.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Stage five stays off limits.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Newton Hall already?
Short list, then. First: your engine remains off. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels as soon as the ignition goes on — and so keep it off. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is drawn from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it's the Sainsbury's or the Esso, ask the attendants to help push the vehicle away from the pump. Your own drive in Newton Hall is the place it should stay.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your motor has already run. Newton Hall sits under 3 miles from the A1(M); there, use the first exit. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Newton Hall is smaller work than a run of under 3 miles to Durham, so tell us.
When we turn up in Newton Hall, what takes place?
Wherever the car came to rest, be it by Durham Newton Hall Infants' School, near All Saints Church or on your own drive, our van comes to it. Our engineers ask what was put in, about how much, and whether it has run, because those answers settle the work and our quote. On the call itself, you hear our price — ahead of anything else.
Then that tank is cleared and the system rinsed thoroughly. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and neither washes out by itself. That is why it matters more. Testing is at the end: before that, fresh diesel is added, and the filter is flushed or replaced if necessary. The motor is fired up next and checked to confirm it runs properly, all before our technicians leave.
Unrun vehicles usually need a half-hour visit after the moment we arrive. The kit is safe on a live forecourt, and hushed enough for a residential street late at night. The insurer will ask for an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both once the job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Before we get there, have a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Newton Hall
Newton Hall is a suburban area located near the city of Durham, sitting at an elevation of 83 metres in the inland countryside of County Durham. Newton Hall is characterized by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock, with the neighbourhood forming part of the wider urban area surrounding Durham. Newton Hall is close to other nearby places, including Framwellgate Moor, Brasside, and Pity Me, and is about 1.4 miles from Durham city centre. Newton Hall has a population of approximately 5005 residents.
AdBlue drains across Durham, Newton Hall included
Brasside and Pity Me are among the towns around Newton Hall, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, throughout DH postcodes. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting DH1 5.
Shifting your car isn't needed. Wherever it stands — beside Newton Hall Library, in a layby heading to Canterbury Road Park, on a drive — that is where it is cleared. Assuming won't help at the back of Centre of the Galaxy Viewer, on a boundary, or anywhere awkward to describe; ring and ask.
The short version for Newton Hall people
Before you tip, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave it off and ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it waits, anywhere in Durham.