Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Norden
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and the ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. Around Norden, catching it before your engine runs usually leaves draining and a full flush where it stands. Not happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page explains the why it takes place and the how to prevent it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Many modern diesels in Catley Lane Head, as well as Norden, carry on two fluids; your motor gets only the diesel. Your exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the gas to clean it, from its own tank.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the arrangement on many motors. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. Diesel goes in on each filling station call-out, week in, week out. Far less commonly, the AdBlue side is filled — mostly from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. The slip lives in that gap.
Norden: how AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
On a drive off Keepers Drive before work, or in the car park outside Black Dog heading home: that's where the hurried top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and once it is empty, limp mode kicks in.
Then your car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the pour once it has started. It's a few seconds, be it in Bagslate Moor or right in the centre of Norden.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A couple of seconds is all these take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a drive in Rain Shore or a forecourt in Norden.
- Read the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually are not.
- Many cars fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Open the flap and look for a label — many motors show what belongs in which filler right there.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler is if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Rochdale.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Greater Manchester that is.
- Turn off once parked — flat ground, motor stopped, and not in a rush by Shawfield Lane on the verge.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew it. It sounds silly. It works.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Skip step five altogether.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Norden?
Don't start the motor: that's where the short order of things starts. Keep the ignition off as well, since on plenty of diesels switching it on alone runs your fuel pump. Topping up with diesel won't dilute it: instead, AdBlue drops to the base of the tank, right where fuel is drawn from.
The attendants at Esso, Texaco or another forecourt will usually lend a hand to push the car away when asked. Your own driveway around Norden is the place it stays.
Where the motor has been run already, stop somewhere safe and switch the vehicle off. The next junction means where to come off when you're on the A627(M), under 3 miles from Norden. Mileage counts — a short hop across Norden is a smaller job than driving under 15 miles to Manchester — so say about how far it went.
Our arrival in Norden, and what happens next
Our engineers come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Norden Primary Academy, near St Paul or on your own drive. Both the work and our quote rest on three replies — what fluid, which quantity, and if it's run — so we ask. You hear that price on the phone, before anybody heads out.
Next: a drain, then a full flush of the entire system. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. Filter flushed or, where it must be, swapped; clean diesel in; then a test of the vehicle. Then our engineers fire it up and check it runs properly before leaving.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour after we get there, provided the engine hasn't run — and the pumps we use are safe on a live forecourt yet quiet after dark beside a house. Nothing upfront; you settle up that day. At the end, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Norden and where it is
Norden is a suburban area in Greater Manchester, situated near the riverside and close to the open spaces of Bagslate Moor. Norden has a mix of housing types, but is predominantly characterized by detached homes, and is located around 10 miles from Manchester. Norden sits at an elevation of 164 metres, and is part of the wider North West region of England. Norden is also relatively distant from London, at approximately 170 miles away.
AdBlue drains in Norden and across Greater Manchester
Cutgate and Passmonds are among the places around Norden, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, over OL postcodes. A postcode starting OL12 7 gets the van to you fastest.
The car remains put. We drain it where it is — a side street close to St. Vincent de Paul RC Church, a lay-by on the way to Clay Lane Wood, a drive. Tricky to explain, like the back of RRUFC? By a county line? Asking is better than assuming, and so ring.
The short version for Norden motorists
Before you pour, read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Keep it switched off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, throughout Greater Manchester.