Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Newtown
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and your ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. Around Newtown, catching it before the motor runs normally leaves a drain and a full flush on the spot. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Many modern diesels in Poolstock, as well as Newtown, carry on two fluids; your engine gets just your diesel. Your exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the fumes to fresh it, from a separate tank.
Separate tanks, different fillers. 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. Topping up the diesel side at the petrol pump happens all the time. Seldom filled, AdBlue usually comes out of a bottle, poured by a driver who must stop and think what filler it needs. The mistake grows in the gap between the two.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank occur around Newtown?
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle 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 drive off Albert Street before work, or in the car park at Red Robin on the way home.
Then the car is strange. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Lastly, the spout fits: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in just as readily, and once the pour begins, no part stops it. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Newtown or out in Laithwaite.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Look at these before pouring, at a forecourt in Newtown or a drive over in Worsley Mesnes. A few seconds, no more.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Check inside your fuel flap: plenty of cars have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows which it is if the filler is not next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- The previous driver will know. Check as you collect a rental or company car — from Wigan Wallgate's car park, say — rather than once the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
For the day the warning comes on — anywhere you are across Greater Manchester — a simple routine to follow.
- Switch off once parked — flat ground, motor off, and never in a rush by Liptrot Street at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" out loud as unscrewing it. It seems daft. It does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Before you start the car, close the cap and look again that the diesel cap was never came off.
Spot at step two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? So stop right there. Never go on to step five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Newtown?
Short order, then. First: your motor remains unstarted. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch the car on. Filling up with diesel won't thin it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the base of your tank, just where the fuel is drawn from.
On a forecourt — Asda, BP or any other — the staff will normally help push the vehicle clear, when you ask. Your own driveway in Newtown is the place it should stay.
Already run? Stop once it's safe, then switch off. Come off the Orrell Interchange — under 3 miles out of Newtown — at the next junction. About how far did it go? Crossing Newtown is less work than a run of under 25 miles towards Salford, and so tell us.
What takes place when we get there around Newtown
Our engineers come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside St Mark's CofE Primary School, near Bethel Independant Methodist Church or on your own driveway. Both the work and the price depend on three answers — what fluid, which amount, and whether it has run — so our engineers ask. No one sets off before you've had our quote by phone.
Next: a drain, then a thorough flush of the entire system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more here than with petrol. Testing is last: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and your filter is flushed or replaced as needed. Before we leave, our technicians fire it up and confirm that it is running smoothly.
If the motor has not run, the majority of 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 after dark. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents your insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. While we travel, have a look at your insurance documents; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Newtown itself
Newtown is a suburban area in Greater Manchester, situated near the lakeside at an elevation of 29 metres. Newtown sits within a network of residential communities, including nearby Laithwaite and Spring Bank, and is located close to Worsley Hall. Newtown has a population of approximately 5158 people, predominantly living in terraced housing. Newtown is about 15 miles from Salford and 176 miles from London.
AdBlue drains in Newtown and across Greater Manchester
As a new town, Newtown has the same vans as nearby areas — Spring Bank, Worsley Hall — all the way through WN postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. A postcode starting WN5 9 gets the van to you fastest.
Moving the vehicle is not needed. Wherever it stands — beside Saint Mark's Church, in a lay-by en route to Laithwaite Park, at home — that's where it gets emptied. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Blundell Monument? Close to a county line? Asking beats guessing, so phone.
Newtown people: the short version
Pour nothing till you have read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Keep the vehicle switched off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, throughout Greater Manchester.