Newtonia: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and the ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103. Usually, when the motor has not turned, it's drained and fully purged where the car is around Newtonia. Reading in advance? Then the rest explains why it happens and what to stop it ever happening.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Diesel goes to your motor — yet plenty of current diesels seen around Newtonia and Clive hold a second liquid as well. Your exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the gas to fresh them, from its own tank.
Every tank has a 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 on every filling station 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 far less commonly. The error lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank happens in Newtonia
It's rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from the car, and running dry leads to limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Westlands Road, perhaps outside The Golden Lion Hotel on the way home that evening.
New-to-you cars are next, too. Rentals, new cars and company vehicles put their fillers differently, and the hand goes for the cap it used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, after begun, keeps on. It's a few seconds, be it out in Middlewich or bang in the heart of Newtonia.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Check these before pouring, at a forecourt around Newtonia or a drive over in Clive Green. Seconds, that's all.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- The size. On plenty of vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler is if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Winsford? Check with whoever drove it last before leaving, not when the light goes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Cheshire that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of East Road, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park and switch off first.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- The diesel cap remains on. When the two share a flap, make sure it's closed before the bottle comes up.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before you start your car, close the cap and check a second time that the diesel cap was never came off.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Never go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Newtonia?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your motor. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels as soon as the ignition is switched on — so leave it off. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is drawn from.
The staff at D&D Autos, Shell or another forecourt will usually help pushing your car clear if you ask. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive around Newtonia.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Leave the M6 — under 3 miles out of Newtonia — at the first junction. A short hop across Newtonia is a smaller job than a run towards Stoke-on-Trent, under 25 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
When our engineers get there around Newtonia, what happens?
We come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Middlewich Primary School, close to Roman Theatre or on your own driveway. Our technicians ask what got in, about how much, and whether it's run, since those answers decide this work and the price. You get that quote by phone, before anybody heads out.
Then the tank is drained and the fuel system flushed thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that counts more here than with petrol. Testing is at the end: before that, fresh diesel is added, and the filter is cleaned or replaced as needed. The motor is fired up next and tested to make sure it runs properly, all before our technicians go.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour once our technicians get there, as long as the motor has not run — and the pumps we use are fine on a live forecourt and quiet at night beside a house. The insurer usually wants an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. It's worth checking your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Newtonia itself
Newtonia is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Cheshire, with a relatively low elevation of 43 metres. Newtonia lies near the towns of Middlewich and Stoke-on-Trent, and is part of a network of residential communities that include Manor Park and Stanthorne. Newtonia has a population of around 4232 people, who mostly reside in detached houses. Newtonia is located 152.2 miles from London, making it a commuter hub for those working in the capital.
AdBlue drains about Newtonia, and Cheshire beyond
Newtonia is a residential suburb, and the teams that cover it also work the places near it, Manor Park and Stanthorne among them, across the CW postcode area. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting CW10 9.
The car doesn't need to move. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near The Wych Centre, a lay-by on the way to Fountain Fields, a driveway. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of St. Michael and All Angels Church, ring and ask instead of guessing.
Newtonia people: the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere around Cheshire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway — and so leave it off then phone 0333 366 0103.