How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Norton
Keep the engine and ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Normally, when the engine has not run, it is emptied and thoroughly purged where your car is in Norton. Here in advance? Then what follows covers why it happens and what to prevent it happening at all.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Diesel goes to your motor — but plenty of modern diesels driven about Norton and Town Park hold another liquid too. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Every tank has one filler of its own. Plenty of vehicles have a single flap for the two, whereas others put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, the diesel side gets filled constantly. Rarely topped up, AdBlue usually goes in out of a bottle, poured by a driver who must stop and think which cap it needs. Mistakes happen in that gap between the two.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank take place in Norton?
Carelessness rarely explains it. What does 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 — so a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Norton Village, or outside The Windmill on the way home that evening.
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.
Lastly, the spout goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in just as easily, and once the pour starts, nothing stops it. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Norton or out in Windmill Hill.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Look at these before pouring, on a forecourt in Norton or a drive over in Halton Village. A few seconds, no more.
- Check the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue caps are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually are not.
- On many cars, size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Look inside your fuel flap: many motors carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler sits if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- The previous driver knows. Check as you collect a hire car or fleet car — at Runcorn East's car park, say — not once the warning appears.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Cheshire that is.
- Pull in on level, motor off, with time in hand — not hurried on the side of Priory Green.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap works — once you've located the filler and read the cap.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where the two sit under a flap, confirm it's closed before the bottle comes up.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the vehicle, close the cap and look again that your diesel cap was never came off.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Leave out stage five entirely.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Norton?
The short order of things, beginning with no starting your engine. Keep your ignition off as well, since on many diesels it by itself runs your pump. Topping up with diesel will not weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the base of your tank, just where fuel is drawn from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it is the PEVA Fuels or the Asda, ask the staff to help roll the car clear of the pump. If you are on your own drive in Norton, leave the vehicle where it is.
Already run? Pull over once it is safe, then switch off. The next exit is the place to come off when you are on the M56, under a mile from Norton. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Chester, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Norton.
Our arrival around Norton, and what occurs next
Our van reaches your car anywhere it stopped — your own driveway, beside St Berteline and St Christopher, or by St Berteline's CofE Primary School. Both the work and the quote rest on three answers — which liquid, which amount, and whether it's run — so our technicians ask. That quote is given over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
Next: a drain, then a thorough flush of the entire system. Much more than with petrol, it matters here: the crystals build up, some metals are attacked, and none of that clears away on its own, however long it sits. A test is at the end: before that, clean diesel goes in, and the filter is flushed or changed as needed. Before we leave, our technicians start it and make sure that it is running properly.
Unstarted vehicles mostly need a half-hour job from arrival. The equipment is safe on a busy forecourt, and hushed enough for a driveway late at night. Nothing upfront; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is included in many insurance policies — and so use the wait to check yours.
About Norton
Norton is a suburban area in Cheshire, situated near the coast and approximately 13.5 miles from Chester. Norton occupies a relatively low-lying position at around 55 metres above sea level, with nearby areas including Windmill Hill and Norton Cross. Norton is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its development as a residential area. Norton is also close to other local places such as Murdishaw, and is around 165 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Cheshire, Norton included
Norton Cross and Murdishaw are among the places near Norton, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, throughout WA postcodes. Fastest of all: quote a WA7 6 postcode for the van.
There's no need to shift the vehicle. We drain it where it is — a side street near Murdishaw Community Centre, a lay-by on the way to Windmill Hill Wood, a driveway. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Murdishaw Youth Centre? Close to a border? Checking beats guessing, so ring.
The short version for Norton drivers
First, the cap; then, the tip. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it where it stands, anywhere around Cheshire: keep the car off and call 0333 366 0103.