North Side: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and your ignition off and call 0333 366 0103. A drain and a full flush, done right where the car stands in North Side, is normally all it takes when caught before the engine runs. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Plenty of current diesels on the roads round North Side and Mossbay carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There is a filler on each tank. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is fuelled at the petrol pump all the time. Seldom topped up, AdBlue usually goes in from a bottle, tipped by someone who has to stop and think what filler it needs. Mistakes happen in that gap between them.
North Side: how AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place
Carelessness rarely explains it. Instead is three things coming up together.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out altogether, your vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Thwaite Bank before work, or in the car park outside Rift & Co. on the way home.
Next, the hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old vehicle — since a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not.
A spouted bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, after started, keeps on. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of North Side or out in Workington.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Check these before pouring, at a forecourt around North Side or a drive out in Stainburn. Seconds, no more.
- Position can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps are often blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually don't.
- On many motors, the size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows where it is when your filler is not next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Workington.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
Wherever across Cumbria the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Burrow Walls.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap works — once you have located the filler and read it.
- The two behind one flap? Then make sure the lid on your diesel side is still shut ahead of raising the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, and look again — making sure the diesel filler stayed shut the whole time. After that, start the car.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Do not go on to stage five.
North Side: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Short order, then. Top of that: your motor stays off. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch the car on. Topping up with diesel won't dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the base of your tank, just where the fuel is drawn from.
The attendants at Asda, Morrisons or another forecourt will usually lend a hand pushing the vehicle away if you ask. At home around North Side? Then your car stays where it is.
When the engine has been run by now, pull over somewhere safe and switch it off. On the M6, under 50 miles from North Side, that means the next exit. A short hop across North Side is a smaller job than a run towards Carlisle, under 50 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
North Side: what occurs when our engineers turn up
Outside Northside Primary School, near Northside Community Centre or on your own driveway: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our technicians come to it. Our technicians ask what went in, about how much, and whether it's run, since those replies decide this work and the quote. On the phone call itself, you are told our price — ahead of anything else.
Then your tank is cleared and your system rinsed thoroughly. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and neither washes away unaided. Hence it matters more. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. The engine is fired up next and checked to confirm it runs correctly, all before our engineers head off.
Using pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your motor hasn't run take roughly half an hour once our technicians arrive. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It is worth looking at your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About North Side
North Side is a small suburban area located on the coast of Cumbria, with an elevation of around 20 metres above sea level. North Side sits near the towns of Workington and Barepot, and is close to the village of Siddick. North Side is characterized by its predominantly terraced housing stock, and is situated approximately 29 miles from the city of Carlisle.
AdBlue drains across Cumbria, North Side included
North Side is a residential suburb, and our teams that cover it also work the towns near it, Barepot and Siddick among them, across the CA postcode area. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting CA14 1.
Your car remains where it is. Draining happens on the spot, whether a driveway, a road near Holy Trinity Church, or a lay-by on the way to The Green. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Borough Park.
The short version for North Side motorists
Before you pour, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it sits, anywhere around Cumbria.