How It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Nook
Stop here a minute when the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then call 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Nook. The remainder of this page covers why it happens and how to ensure it doesn't — useful if you're reading before it has happened.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Diesel feeds the engine — yet many modern diesels seen about Nook and Copley Hill hold another fluid too. The exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the gas to fresh it, from its own tank.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, side by side: that is the layout on many vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. Diesel gets filled on each forecourt call-out, week in, week out. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less regularly, usually from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake lives in that gap.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Nook: how it occurs
It is seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from your car, and running dry leads to limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Almond Way, perhaps outside The Greyhound on the way home after work.
Unfamiliar vehicles come next, too. Hire cars, new vehicles and company vehicles place their fillers in new places, and the hand reaches for the cap used on the old one.
A spouted bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, after begun, carries on. Whether it takes place in Brown Hill or the middle of Nook, it's the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Whether a Nook forecourt or a drive out in Birstall Smithies, take a couple of seconds on these before anything goes in.
- Check the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue ones are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually aren't.
- On many motors, size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Check inside the fuel flap: many motors have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says where it is when the filler isn't next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Batley.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
On the day the light appears — wherever you are around West Yorkshire — a routine to use.
- Stop on level, engine off, with time to spare — never hurried on the side of Intake Lane.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, yes, yet it works.
- The two under a single flap? So make sure the lid on your diesel filler stays shut ahead of raising the bottle.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Find at stage two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? Then stop right there. Leave out stage five altogether.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Nook already?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your engine. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels as soon as the ignition is switched on — and so leave it off. Filling up with diesel won't weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the bottom of the tank, right where the fuel is taken from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it is the Texaco or the another forecourt nearby, ask the attendants to help push your car away from the petrol pump. If you are on your own drive in Nook, leave the vehicle where it is.
Where your engine has been run already, stop somewhere safe then switch the vehicle off. The next exit means the place to come off if you are on the M62, under 3 miles from Nook. About how far did it go? Hopping across Nook is smaller a job than a run of under 10 miles to Bradford, and so say.
Nook: what happens when our engineers get there
Our van reaches the vehicle wherever it has come to rest — your own drive, beside St Saviour, or by Windmill CofE (VC) Primary School. Both the work and our price depend on three answers — what fluid, what quantity, and whether it has run — so our technicians ask. During the call itself, you hear the price — before anything else.
The fuel system is then purged thoroughly, after the tank is drained. More than with petrol, it counts here: the crystals form, some metals are attacked, and nothing clears away unaided, no matter how long it is left. Testing comes last: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and your filter is cleaned or replaced if necessary. Before we leave, we fire it up and make sure that it is running properly.
Unrun cars mostly mean a half-hour job after arrival. The equipment is fine on a busy filling station, and hushed enough for a residential street after dark. No money upfront; you settle up that day. At the end, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. Misfuelling cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — so use the wait to check yours.
About Nook itself
Nook is a suburban area in West Yorkshire, situated near the River Aire and close to the city of Bradford. Nook has a mix of semi-detached housing and local amenities, with nearby places including Brown Hill and Brookroyd. Nook sits at an elevation of 117 metres, with the surrounding landscape shaped by the river and its tributaries.
Nook and West Yorkshire: AdBlue drains across the area
As a residential suburb, Nook has the same vans as nearby places — Brookroyd, Brownhill End — right through WF postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. Quickest of all: give a WF17 0 postcode for the van.
There's no need to move the vehicle. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street close to Birstall Methodist Church, a lay-by on the way to Little Wood, a driveway. Assuming doesn't help behind Bagshaw Museum, on a border, or anywhere hard to pin down; ring and check.
In short, for Nook motorists
Read the cap before you tip. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave the car off then call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it sits, anywhere in West Yorkshire.