Why It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Normandale
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then put this page aside for now, leave your ignition and motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. In Normandale, finding it before your engine runs normally leaves a drain and a full flush on the spot. Here in advance? In that case what follows covers why it happens and what to stop it ever happening.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Plenty of modern diesels on the roads about Normandale and Hallowmoor carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust gas and cleans it.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Under one flap, side by side: that's the arrangement on many vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. At the pump, your diesel side is topped up constantly. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less often. That gap is where the mistake lives.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank take place in Normandale?
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
On a driveway off South View Rise before work, or in the car park at The Wisewood Inn heading home: that's where the rushed top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low your car tells you, and once it is gone, limp mode follows.
Then your car is strange. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Third, the bottle fits: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in as easily, and after the tip begins, nothing halts it. Wisewood or the middle of Normandale: it is the same few seconds either way.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Look at these first, on a forecourt in Normandale or a driveway out in Wadsley. A few seconds, that's all.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually isn't. Read it rather than going by position.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Check inside the fuel flap: plenty of cars have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler is if it is not by the diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park at Sheffield? Check with whoever drove it last before leaving, rather than when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
Anywhere in South Yorkshire the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Pull in on level, engine off, with time to spare — not hurried on the side of Normandale Avenue.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap works — after you've located the filler and read the cap.
- The diesel cap remains on. When the two share a flap, make sure it is shut before lifting the bottle.
- Stop when that tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; before that, pour gently through the own spout.
- Only after that, start the car: close the cap, check again, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Skip stage five altogether.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Normandale already?
Do not start the motor: that's where the short order of things starts. The fuel pump runs on many diesels the moment the ignition is switched on — so leave it off. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is drawn from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it is the JET or the BP, ask the attendants to help roll the vehicle clear of the pump. Your own driveway around Normandale is where it should stay.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the engine has already run. On the M1, under 5 miles from Normandale, that means the next exit. A short hop across Normandale is a smaller job than a run towards Sheffield, under 5 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
Normandale: what occurs when we get there
Wherever your car has stopped, whether outside Loxley Primary School, near Dog Leg Bench or at home, our van travels to it. Both the work and the quote rest on three answers — what liquid, what quantity, and if it's run — so we ask. The quote is given over the phone, before any van leaves.
After that: draining, then a thorough flush of the whole system. More than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: crystals build up, some metals are attacked, and none of that washes out unaided, no matter how long it sits. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. We do not leave until it has been started and is running properly.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour once our engineers arrive, provided your engine hasn't run — and the pumps we use are safe on a live forecourt yet quiet after dark outside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Misfuelling cover is included in many insurance policies — so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Normandale itself
Normandale is a suburban area situated on the outskirts of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, characterised by its lakeside setting and semi-detached housing stock. Normandale sits at an elevation of 163 metres, with nearby places including Wisewood, Studfield Hill, and Loxley. Normandale is located approximately 3.1 miles from Sheffield city centre, making it a popular residential choice. Normandale has a population of around 2781 people, according to recent estimates.
Normandale and South Yorkshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Studfield Hill and Loxley are among the towns near Normandale, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, throughout S postcodes. Fastest of all: give a S6 6 postcode to our van.
The car doesn't need to move. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Studfield Hill Quarry, a side street near Loxley Methodist Church: our engineers drain the car where it sits. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Wisewood Sports Centre, ring and ask rather than guessing.
In short, for Normandale people
Read the cap before you tip. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it wherever it is, wherever in South Yorkshire: switch the vehicle off and ring 0333 366 0103.