How It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in North Ashton
Pause here a minute if your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and call 0333 366 0103. Normally, when your motor has not turned, it's drained and thoroughly purged where your vehicle is in North Ashton. Nothing happened yet? Below, the rest of the page explains the why it takes place and the ways to prevent it for good.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Diesel feeds your engine — yet many newer diesels driven round North Ashton and Rose Hill carry a second fluid too. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust stream to clean it.
Every tank comes with one filler of its own. Under one flap, side by side: that is the arrangement on many cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. Filling your diesel side at the pump happens constantly. Rarely topped up, AdBlue usually comes out of a bottle, tipped by someone who has to stop and think what filler it needs. It's in the gap that the error lives.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank take place around North Ashton?
Carelessness rarely explains it. Instead is three things lining up at once.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from your car, and running out leads to limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Downall Green Road, or at The Blue Bell on the way home after work.
New-to-you cars come next, as well. Rentals, new vehicles and company motors place their fillers in new places, and habit goes for the cap used on the old one.
Lastly, the spout fits: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in as readily, and once the pour starts, nothing halts it. Downall Green or the heart of North Ashton: it is the same few seconds in both.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
A couple of seconds is all these take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a drive in Leyland Green or a forecourt around North Ashton.
- Check the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally are not.
- Plenty of vehicles give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Look for it.
- Cannot find it beside your diesel filler? In that case check beneath the bonnet or inside the boot — the owner's manual says where.
- The previous driver knows. Check as you pick up a rental or fleet car — from Bryn's car park, perhaps — rather than once the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
When the light comes on, anywhere in Greater Manchester, use this routine.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Dellside Close.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" aloud as unscrewing it. It seems silly. It works.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check again, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Find at stage two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? Then stop just there. Skip step five altogether.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around North Ashton already?
Brief order, then. Top of it: your motor stays off. Leave your ignition off too, because on many diesels switching it on by itself starts the fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is sucked from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it is the Texaco or the Shell, ask the attendants to help roll the car away from the pump. At home around North Ashton? So the vehicle stays put.
Already run? Pull over when it's sensible, then turn off. North Ashton sits under a mile from the Bryn Spur; on it, use the first junction. A short hop across North Ashton is a smaller job than a run towards Liverpool, under 15 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
When our engineers arrive in North Ashton, what occurs?
Wherever the vehicle has stopped, whether by Rectory CofE Primary School, beside Holy Trinity or at home, our van travels to it. Both the work and the quote depend on three answers — which liquid, what amount, and if it's run — so our engineers ask. That price comes over the phone, before any van leaves.
Emptying the tank comes next, then a thorough flush of your system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more here than with petrol. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. We do not leave until it has been started and is running smoothly.
Unstarted vehicles usually mean a half-hour job from the moment we arrive. The kit is fine on a live filling station, and hushed enough for a driveway after dark. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents your insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About North Ashton, for a moment
North Ashton is a suburban area in Greater Manchester, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 83 metres. North Ashton lies near several nearby places, including Downall Green, Bryn, and Garswood, and is located approximately 14 miles from Liverpool. North Ashton has a population of around 3323 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. North Ashton is also relatively distant from London, at a distance of 174 miles.
AdBlue drains in North Ashton and across Greater Manchester
North Ashton is a residential suburb, and our teams that cover it also work the towns near it, Bryn and Garswood among them, across the WN postcode area. A postcode starting WN4 0 gets our van to you fastest.
There's no need to move the car. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Brocstedes Park, a side street close to Our Lady Immaculate: we drain the car where it sits. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Brocstedes Park, ring and ask instead of guessing.
For North Ashton people, the short version
First, the cap; then, the tip. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave the car off and phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it waits, anywhere around Greater Manchester.