Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Northwick: Why It Occurs
Pause reading a minute when the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. In Northwick, finding it before your engine turns normally leaves draining and a full flush on the spot. 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 motor need its own filler?
No single liquid but two: that is what plenty of modern diesels around Northwick and Little Eastbury run, with diesel for the motor. 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's a filler for every tank. Plenty of cars share a single flap for the two, while others move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Topping up the diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. Seldom filled, AdBlue normally goes in from a bottle, poured by a driver who has to stop and think which cap to use. Mistakes happen in that gap between the two.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs in Northwick
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from your car, and running out leads to limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Colin Road, perhaps at The New Inn on the way home that evening.
Then the vehicle is strange. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Third, the spout fits: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in as easily, and after the pour begins, no part stops it. It takes a few seconds, be it in Barbourne or bang in the centre of Northwick.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Look at these before pouring, at a forecourt in Northwick or a drive out in Hallow. A few seconds, that's all.
- Position misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones are often blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally do not.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many cars, the AdBlue one.
- Lift the filler flap and check for a label — plenty of vehicles show which goes in each inlet just there.
- Can't see it next to the diesel filler? Then check below the bonnet or in your boot — the handbook says where.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Worcester Foregate Street? Ask whoever drove it last before you set off, rather than when the light goes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
Wherever around Worcestershire the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Beckett Road.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, yes, but it does the trick.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Stop once that tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; before that, pour slowly through its built-in spout.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Never go on to stage five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Northwick?
Brief order, then. First: your engine remains off. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels the moment the ignition goes on — so keep 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 thin it.
Ask the staff to help roll your car clear of the petrol pump if you're at a forecourt — the Esso, the Texaco or anywhere else. Your own drive in Northwick is where it should stay.
Where your engine has been run by now, stop safely and turn the vehicle off. Leave the M5 — under 5 miles out of Northwick — at the next exit. A short hop across Northwick is a smaller job than a run towards Worcester, under 3 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
When we arrive in Northwick, what takes place?
The van comes to the car anywhere it stopped — your own drive, near Plymouth Brethren Christian Church, or outside Northwick Manor Primary School. Both the work and our price depend on three answers — which fluid, which amount, and whether it has run — so our engineers ask. You get that quote by phone, before anybody heads out.
Draining that tank comes next, then a full flush of your 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 does not wash out on its own. Testing is last: before that, clean diesel is added, and the fuel filter is cleaned or replaced if necessary. The engine is started next and checked to make sure it runs smoothly, all before our technicians leave.
With pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where your engine has not run take roughly half an hour once our technicians arrive. No money in advance; you settle up on the day. At the end, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. It is worth looking at your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Northwick and where it is
Northwick is a suburban area located on the riverside in Worcestershire, with a mix of semi-detached housing and other residential properties. Northwick sits near the city of Worcester, approximately 1.8 miles from the city centre, and is close to other nearby places such as Barbourne and Claines. Northwick has a population of around 5216 people and is situated at an elevation of 29 metres, making it a relatively low-lying area. Northwick is also within commuting distance of London, being around 102.3 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Worcestershire, Northwick included
Bevere and Claines are among the towns around Northwick, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, throughout WR postcodes. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting WR3 7.
No need to move the car. Draining happens on the spot, be it a drive, a road near Claines Parish Church, or a lay-by on the way to Old Elizabethans Cricket Club. Assuming doesn't help behind Barbourne St Stephen, on a boundary, or anywhere awkward to describe; phone and ask.
For Northwick motorists, the short version
Pour no AdBlue until you've read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Keep the vehicle switched off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, throughout Worcestershire.