Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Norton Hammer: Why It Happens
Keep your engine and ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Usually, if your motor has not turned, it is emptied and thoroughly purged where the car is in Norton Hammer. The remainder of this page covers why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't — useful if you're reading ahead of time.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Not one fluid but two: that is what many newer diesels near Norton Hammer and Norton Lees carry, with diesel feeding the motor. The exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the gas to fresh them, from its own tank.
There's a filler for each tank. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the layout on many vehicles. On others, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. Filling your diesel side at the petrol pump happens all the time. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less commonly. It's in that gap that the slip lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Norton Hammer: how it occurs
Carelessness rarely causes it. Instead is three things coming up together.
Haste follows from the warning. The car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a drive off Woodseats Road, or heading home in the car park at The Cross Scythes.
Then the car is new. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Nothing stops the tip once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Meersbrook Bank or the heart of Norton Hammer: it is the same few seconds in both.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Be it a Norton Hammer forecourt or a drive over in Nether Edge, take a couple of seconds on these before any goes in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually isn't. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on many cars, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of cars say there which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler is if it is not by the diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at Dore & Totley, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
Anywhere across South Yorkshire the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Athol Road.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, perhaps, yet it works.
- The diesel cap stays on. When both share a flap, make sure it is shut before lifting the bottle.
- Stop once your tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; until then, tip gently using the own spout.
- Only then, start the car: close the cap, check again, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Step five is off limits.
Norton Hammer: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with not starting the motor. The fuel pump runs on many diesels the moment your ignition is switched on — so leave it off. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is pulled from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it's the Esso or the Tesco, ask the staff to help push the car away from the petrol pump. Your own driveway in Norton Hammer is where it stays.
When the motor has run already, stop safely and turn the car off. On the M1, under 10 miles from Norton Hammer, that means the next exit. Distance counts — a quick hop across Norton Hammer is a smaller job than heading under 3 miles to Sheffield — so tell us about how far it went.
Our arrival around Norton Hammer, and what occurs next
Our technicians come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Holt House Infant School, near The Climbing Works or on your own driveway. Both the work and our quote rest on three replies — what liquid, what quantity, and if it has run — so our technicians ask. Nobody sets off before you've had the quote over the phone.
Emptying your tank comes next, followed by a full flush of the system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and none of that washes out by itself. That is why it counts more. After the fuel filter has been flushed — or renewed, where needed — clean diesel goes in, and then your car is tested. The engine is started next and tested to be sure it runs properly, all before we go.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour once we get there, provided your motor has not run — and the pumps our technicians use are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet after dark beside a house. Nothing in advance; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Norton Hammer, briefly
Norton Hammer is a suburban area situated on the riverside in South Yorkshire, with a mix of terraced housing and local amenities. Norton Hammer sits at an elevation of 86 metres, close to the city of Sheffield, which is approximately 2.3 miles away. Norton Hammer is part of the larger urban area surrounding Sheffield, with nearby places including Meersbrook Bank and Carter Knowle. Norton Hammer has a population of around 9626 people, living in a predominantly residential community.
Norton Hammer and South Yorkshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Norton Hammer is a residential suburb, and our vans that cover it also work the towns around it, Carter Knowle and Fourlane Ends among them, across the S postcode area. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting S8 0.
The car doesn't need to shift. Draining takes place on the spot, whether a driveway, a road near Mini Works, or a lay-by on the way to Abbeydale Wood. Tricky to pin down, like the back of Saint Peter and Saint Oswald? By a county line? Checking beats guessing, and so ring.
For Norton Hammer people, the short version
Tip no AdBlue till you've read the cap. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it where it is, wherever in South Yorkshire: keep it off and ring 0333 366 0103.