Newton-le-Willows: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Pause reading a minute if your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Normally, if the motor has not run, it is drained and thoroughly flushed where your vehicle sits around Newton-le-Willows. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it does not.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Diesel goes to the motor — yet many current diesels driven round Newton-le-Willows and Old Boston carry another liquid too. Your exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the gas to clean them, from a separate tank.
Each tank has one filler of its own. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled at each forecourt visit, week in, week out. Far less often, the AdBlue side gets topped up — mostly from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. It is in the gap that the mistake happens.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank take place in Newton-le-Willows?
It is seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a drive off Alpine Street before work, or in the car park outside The Nine Arches heading home: that's where the hurried top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low the vehicle tells you, and if it's empty, limp mode kicks in.
The old car's filler is where your hand reaches — yet a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That's the second thing: a new motor.
Third, the spout fits: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in just as easily, and after the tip starts, nothing halts it. Earlestown or the middle of Newton-le-Willows: it takes the same few seconds in both.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in New Boston or a forecourt around Newton-le-Willows, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Check the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue ones are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually aren't.
- The size. On plenty of cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Open the filler flap and look for a label — plenty of cars mark what belongs in which inlet right there.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler sits if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at Earlestown, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
Wherever around Merseyside the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Stop on level, motor off, with time in hand — never rushing on the side of Market Street.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the car, close the cap and check a second time that your diesel cap never opened off.
Spot at stage two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? So stop just there. Step five is out.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Newton-le-Willows already?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your motor. Leave your ignition off as well, since on many diesels switching it on by itself runs the pump. Diluting it with more diesel won't work, since AdBlue sinks to the bottom instead of mixing — and that's where the fuel is sucked from.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it is the Texaco or the Tesco, ask the attendants to help push the vehicle clear of the petrol pump. Your own driveway around Newton-le-Willows is where it stays.
When the engine has run by now, pull over safely then turn the vehicle off. Leave the M6 — under 3 miles out of Newton-le-Willows — at the first junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Liverpool, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Newton-le-Willows.
Newton-le-Willows: what occurs when our engineers turn up
The van reaches your car anywhere it stopped — your own driveway, beside St John the Baptist, or outside The District CofE Primary School. Both the work and our price depend on three replies — what fluid, which amount, and whether it has run — so our engineers ask. No one sets off before you've heard our quote over the phone.
Then your tank is cleared and the fuel system rinsed thoroughly. More than with petrol, it matters here: crystals build up, some metals corrode, and nothing washes away unaided, however long it is left. Once the filter is cleaned — or renewed, if required — clean diesel is added, and then the vehicle gets tested. We do not leave until it has been started and is running smoothly.
Unrun cars usually need a half-hour job after arrival. The equipment is safe on a live forecourt, and quiet enough for a driveway late at night. The insurer usually wants an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Newton-le-Willows itself
Newton-le-Willows is a town in Merseyside, situated inland in the North West of England, with an elevation of around 36 metres. Newton-le-Willows lies approximately 14 miles from Liverpool and 171 miles from London, making it a commuter town with a mix of residential and industrial areas. Newton-le-Willows has a population of around 18,829 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Newton-le-Willows is close to nearby places such as Earlestown, Wargrave, and Collins Green.
AdBlue drains across Merseyside, Newton-le-Willows included
Wargrave and Collins Green are among the towns near Newton-le-Willows, a town, that the same vans cover, over WA postcodes. Quote a postcode beginning WA12 9, and the van arrives quickest.
Moving the car isn't necessary. A drive, a lay-by on the way to King George V Field, a side street near Church of Christ: our engineers drain it where it sits. Assuming doesn't help at the back of Earlestown Outdoor Market, on a boundary, or anywhere hard to pin down; ring and ask.
In short, for Newton-le-Willows drivers
Read the cap before you pour. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere around Merseyside, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — and so leave it off then ring 0333 366 0103.