AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Newton: Why It Happens and How to Avoid It
Stop here for a moment if the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Usually, when your engine has not turned, it's emptied and thoroughly purged where your car is around Newton. Here before the event? In that case what follows covers why it happens and what to prevent it happening at all.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Plenty of newer diesels on the roads around Newton and Newington carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Some motors keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others place the two side by side behind one flap. Diesel goes in at each forecourt visit, again and again. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less commonly. The mistake lives in that gap.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Newton: how it happens
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the car drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Newton before work, or in the car park at Stokesay Inn on the way home.
Unfamiliar vehicles are next, too. Hire cars, new cars and company cars place their fillers differently, and the hand goes for the cap it used on the old one.
Nothing halts the pour once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Newton or out in Craven Arms.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Look at these first, at a forecourt around Newton or a driveway over in Stokesay. Seconds, that's all.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually don't.
- On plenty of motors, the size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Check inside the fuel flap: plenty of vehicles carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by the diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The previous driver will know. Ask when you collect a rental or company car — from Craven Arms's car park, perhaps — rather than once the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
The day the light goes on, wherever around Shropshire, use this routine.
- Switch off after you park — flat ground, engine stopped, and not rushed beside Newton Street on the verge.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap works — after you've located the filler and read the cap.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where both share a flap, confirm it's closed before lifting the bottle.
- Finish when that tank fills or the bottle is empty; before that, tip slowly using the own spout.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check once more, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Discover during the second or third step that the bottle went into the wrong tank? That is where you stop. Leave out step five entirely.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Newton?
Brief list, then. First: the engine stays unstarted. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch the vehicle on. Topping up with diesel won't dilute it: instead, AdBlue drops to the bottom of your tank, just where the fuel is taken from.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it is the Texaco or the Gulf, ask the attendants to help roll your car away from the petrol pump. At home in Newton? Then the vehicle stays where it is.
When the engine has been run by now, stop somewhere safe then switch the car off. The next exit means the place to leave when you are on the M54, under 25 miles from Newton. A short hop across Newton is a smaller job than a run towards Hereford, under 50 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
Our arrival around Newton, and what occurs next
Our engineers come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Stokesay Primary School, close to Shropshire Hills Discovery Centre or on your own driveway. Both the work and our quote depend on three replies — what fluid, which quantity, and whether it has run — so we ask. You hear that quote by phone, before anyone sets off.
Draining the tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of your system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and neither washes away by itself. That is why it counts more. Once your filter has been cleaned — or renewed, where required — clean diesel is added, and then the vehicle gets tested. The motor is started next and tested to be sure it runs properly, all before we go.
If your motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Nothing in advance; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. Before we get there, have a look at your insurance documents; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Newton, for a moment
Newton is a suburban area in Shropshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 121 metres. Newton lies near several smaller settlements, including Craven Arms, Halford, and Whettleton, and is approximately 26.8 miles from the city of Hereford. Newton has a population of around 1793 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Newton is also relatively distant from London, at a distance of 131.8 miles.
AdBlue drains around Newton, and Shropshire beyond
Newton is a residential suburb, and the vans that cover it also work the towns around it, Halford and Whettleton among them, across the SY postcode area. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting SY7 9.
There's no need to move your car. We drain it where it is — a side street near Mammoth Tusks, a lay-by on the way to Craven Arms Allotments and Community Garden, a drive. Guessing won't help behind Craven Arms Stone, close to a boundary, or anywhere hard to describe; ring and check.
In short, for Newton people
Before you pour, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave the car off and phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it waits, anywhere around Shropshire.