Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Nimble Nook
Keep your engine and ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. A drain and a thorough flush, done just where the vehicle sits around Nimble Nook, is normally all it takes when found before your motor runs. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it does not.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
No single liquid but two: that's how plenty of newer diesels near Nimble Nook and White Gate run, with diesel for the engine. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, where spraying treats the gas.
Each tank comes with a filler of its own. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, the diesel side is topped up all the time. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less often. Mistakes happen in that gap between the two.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank take place in Nimble Nook?
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from the car, and running dry leads to limp mode — so a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Grampian Close, perhaps outside The Sportsmans Arms on the way home that evening.
The old car's filler is where the hand reaches — but a hire car, a new car or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That is a second factor: an unfamiliar car.
Lastly, the spout goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in as readily, and once the tip starts, nothing stops it. Thatch Leach or the middle of Nimble Nook: it is the same few seconds in both.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Be it a Nimble Nook forecourt or a driveway out in Stock Brook, spend a few seconds over these before anything goes in.
- Check the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually are not.
- On plenty of motors, size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many cars say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by your diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Moston.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
On the day the light comes on — anywhere it is in Greater Manchester — a routine to use.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Nimble Nook.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" aloud as unscrewing it. It seems silly. It does the trick.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check once more, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Do not go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Nimble Nook?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with no starting your motor. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch it on. Thinning it with extra diesel won't work, since AdBlue sinks to the bottom instead of mixing — and that's where your fuel is sucked from.
The attendants at BP, Costco Wholesale or any forecourt will normally help pushing the vehicle clear if you ask. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive around Nimble Nook.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Nimble Nook sits under a mile from the M60; there, take the next junction. Mileage matters — a short hop across Nimble Nook is a smaller job than driving under 10 miles towards Manchester — so say roughly how far it went.
Nimble Nook: what occurs when our technicians get there
Our van reaches your car wherever it has come to rest — your own driveway, near South Chadderton Methodist Church, or by Christ Church CofE Primary School. Both the work and our price rest on three answers — what fluid, what amount, and whether it has run — so our technicians ask. You hear that price by phone, before anyone sets off.
Your system is then flushed thoroughly, once your tank is drained. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that counts more here than with petrol. Filter cleaned or, where it must be, swapped; fresh diesel in; then a check of the vehicle. We do not leave until it has been fired up and is running correctly.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour after our engineers arrive, as long as your engine hasn't run — and the pumps our engineers use are safe on a busy forecourt yet quiet after dark outside a house. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents your insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Nimble Nook and where it is
Nimble Nook is a suburban area in Greater Manchester, situated on the riverside at an elevation of around 115 metres. Nimble Nook lies approximately 5.5 miles from Manchester, within a network of similar residential areas including Thatch Leach, Butler Green, and Cowhill. Nimble Nook has a population of around 6710 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing.
AdBlue drains across Greater Manchester, Nimble Nook included
Throughout OL postcodes, the teams that cover Nimble Nook — a residential suburb — work the surrounding locations too, Cowhill and Butler Green among them. A postcode starting OL9 9 gets the van to you fastest.
The car does not need to shift. Anywhere it sits — beside Nelson Way Scheme Office & Community Centre, on a lay-by en route to Melrose Playing Fields, on a drive — that is where it is cleared. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of The Crossley Centre.
In short, for Nimble Nook drivers
Pour nothing until you have read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it stands, anywhere across Greater Manchester.