Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Old Trafford: Why It Happens
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then put this page aside for now, leave the ignition and engine off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Around Old Trafford, catching it before your engine turns usually means draining and a full flush on the spot. Reading before the event? Then what follows covers how it happens and what to prevent it happening at all.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Many newer diesels on the roads about Old Trafford and Wharfside carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, where a spray treats the fumes.
Different tanks, separate fillers. Some vehicles put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others have the two together behind one flap. Filling the diesel side at the petrol pump happens all the time. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less regularly, usually from a bottle, and normally by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake grows in that gap between them.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank take place around Old Trafford?
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
On a drive off Seymour Grove before work, or in the car park at The Tollgate on the way home: that is where the rushed top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the vehicle warns you, and once it's empty, limp mode follows.
The old car's cap is where the hand goes — yet a rental car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That is the second factor: an unfamiliar car.
A spouted bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, after started, keeps on. It's a few seconds, be it in Firswood or bang in the centre of Old Trafford.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Gorse Hill or a forecourt around Old Trafford, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Check the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue ones are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually aren't.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Lift the flap and check for a label — plenty of cars show what goes in which filler just there.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by your diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Manchester United Football Club? Check with the person who drove the vehicle last before leaving, not once the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
Anywhere around Greater Manchester the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Switch off once parked — level ground, engine off, and never in a rush beside Elsinore Road at the roadside.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, perhaps, yet it works.
- The two behind a single flap? Then confirm the cap on your diesel filler stays shut before raising the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Before starting your car, shut the cap and look again that your diesel cap never opened off.
Find at step two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? Then stop right there. Skip stage five entirely.
Old Trafford: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
The short order of things, starting with not starting your motor. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels the moment the ignition goes on — and so leave it off. Topping up with diesel will not weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of that tank, right where fuel is drawn from.
The attendants at Esso, Tesco or another forecourt will usually help to push the vehicle away if asked. If you're on your own drive around Old Trafford, leave the car where it stands.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your engine has already run. The next exit is where to leave if you're on the Mancunian Way, under 3 miles from Old Trafford. A short hop across Old Trafford is a smaller job than a run towards Salford, under 3 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
Our arrival around Old Trafford, and what occurs next
Our van comes to the vehicle wherever it stopped — your own drive, near Masjid-E-Hidayah, or by Seymour Park Community Primary School. The replies determine this work and our price, and so our engineers ask what went in, about how much, and whether it's run. On the call itself, you hear the quote — before dispatch.
After that: a drain, then a thorough flush of the entire system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and neither washes away unaided. That is why it matters more. Testing is at the end: before that, clean diesel goes in, and the filter is flushed or changed as needed. The motor is started next and checked to make sure it runs smoothly, all before our technicians go.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour once our technicians arrive, provided your engine has not run — and the pumps we use are safe on a live forecourt and quiet after dark beside a house. 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 policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Old Trafford
Old Trafford is a locality in Greater Manchester, situated on the riverside near the city of Salford. Old Trafford sits at an elevation of 32 metres, approximately 1.5 miles from Salford and 162.5 miles from London. Old Trafford is characterized by its predominantly flat-type housing and is surrounded by nearby places such as Firswood, St Georges, and Ordsall. Old Trafford has a population of around 2561 residents.
AdBlue drains across Greater Manchester, Old Trafford included
As a neighbourhood, Old Trafford shares its vans nearby places — St Georges, Ordsall — all the way across M postcodes and the surrounding area around them. Quickest of all: quote a M16 0 postcode for the van.
Shifting the vehicle is not needed. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near Old Trafford Wellbeing Centre, a lay-by on the way to Seymour Park, a drive. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Old Trafford Sports Barn, ring and ask rather than assuming.
For Old Trafford motorists, the short version
Always, the cap; then, the pour. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave it off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it stands, anywhere across Greater Manchester.