How It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Nun Hills
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case put this page aside for now, keep the ignition and engine off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Normally, when your motor has not turned, it is drained and thoroughly flushed where your car sits in Nun Hills. Nothing happened yet? Below, the rest of the page explains the why it occurs and the ways to avoid it altogether.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Plenty of current diesels on the roads around Nun Hills and Waterbarn carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, and there a spray cleans the gas.
Each tank has its own filler. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Filling the diesel side at the pump goes on all the time. The AdBlue side is topped up far less frequently, usually from a bottle, and usually by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake grows in the gap between the two.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place around Nun Hills
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the vehicle, and letting it run dry means limp mode — so a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Blackwood Court, or outside Rose n Bowl on the way home after work.
Unfamiliar cars come second, too. Hire cars, new vehicles and company vehicles place their fillers in new places, and habit goes for the cap it used on the old one.
Nothing stops the pour once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Tunstead or the middle of Nun Hills: it is the same few seconds in both.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A couple of seconds is all these take — so check them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Rake Head or a forecourt in Nun Hills.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue caps are often blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally do not.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Look for it.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler sits if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Walsden? Ask the person who drove the car last before leaving, not once the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
On the day the light comes on — wherever it is across Lancashire — a routine to follow.
- Stop on level, engine off, with time in hand — never rushing on the side of Blackwood Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- The two behind one flap? Then make sure the lid on your diesel filler stays closed ahead of raising the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, and look again — making sure your diesel cap remained closed the whole time. Only then, start the car.
Discover during the second or third stage that the bottle went into the diesel filler? That is where you stop. Step five stays off limits.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Nun Hills?
Don't start your engine: that's where the short order of things starts. The fuel pump runs on many diesels as soon as your ignition goes on — so keep it off. Thinning it with extra diesel won't work, since AdBlue sinks to the base instead of blending — and that's where your fuel is pulled from.
The attendants at Texaco, Shell or another forecourt will normally help pushing the vehicle clear when you ask. Your own driveway around Nun Hills is where it stays.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your engine has already run. On the M66, under 5 miles from Nun Hills, that means the next junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Manchester, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Nun Hills.
When we get there in Nun Hills, what happens?
Our van reaches your car wherever it stopped — your own drive, beside Holy Trinity, or by Bacup Holy Trinity Stacksteads Church of England Primary School. Those replies settle the work and the price, so our engineers ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether it's run. That price is given over the phone, before any van leaves.
The fuel system is then cleaned thoroughly, after that tank is cleared. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own. Filter flushed or, where needed, replaced; fresh diesel in; then a test of your vehicle. Before leaving, our engineers fire it up and confirm that it is running properly.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour after our technicians arrive, as long as your engine has not run — and the pumps we use are safe on a busy forecourt yet quiet at night outside a house. Your insurer will ask for an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both once the job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. Misfuelling cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Nun Hills itself
Nun Hills is a suburban area in Lancashire, situated on the riverside with a mix of terraced housing and other residential properties. Nun Hills sits at an elevation of 223 metres, overlooking the surrounding countryside. Nun Hills is located near several other communities, including Tunstead, Brandwood, and Stacksteads, and is within commuting distance of Manchester, which is approximately 14.7 miles away.
AdBlue drains around Nun Hills, and Lancashire beyond
Nun Hills is a residential suburb, and our teams that cover it also work the places around it, Brandwood and Stacksteads among them, across the OL postcode area. A postcode starting OL13 0 gets the van to you fastest.
Your car remains where it is. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Stubbylee Park, a side street close to St Nicholas with St John & St Michael: we drain it where it sits. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Bamboo Theatre, ring and ask rather than guessing.
Nun Hills drivers: the short version
Pour nothing until you have read the cap. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it where it is, wherever in Lancashire: keep the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103.