AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Orrell Post: How It Happens and How to Stop It
Leave the motor and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Usually, when your engine hasn't run, it is drained and fully rinsed where the car is around Orrell Post. If you are 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?
Many modern diesels around Redwood, as well as Orrell Post, run on two liquids; the motor gets only your diesel. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has one filler of its own. Many of vehicles share a single flap for both, whereas some move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in on every forecourt visit, again and again. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less commonly, normally from a bottle, and normally by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. It's in that gap that the error lives.
Orrell Post: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the car drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Moor Road before work, or in the car park outside The Stag on the way home.
Unfamiliar motors are next, too. Hire cars, new cars and company cars put their fillers differently, and the hand goes for the cap used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the pour once it has started. It's seconds, be it in Orrell or bang in the centre of Orrell Post.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
A few seconds is all these take — so check them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Lamberhead Green or a forecourt around Orrell Post.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- Many vehicles give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Look inside the fuel flap: plenty of motors carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says which it is if your filler isn't next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- The previous driver will know. Ask when you pick up a rental or fleet car — at Orrell's car park, perhaps — not once the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
The day the light comes on, wherever around Greater Manchester, use this routine.
- Pull in on level, engine off, with time in hand — not hurried on the side of Gathurst Road.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap works — once you have found your filler and read the cap.
- The diesel cap remains on. When both share a flap, confirm it's closed before lifting the bottle.
- Finish when your tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; until then, pour slowly through its built-in spout.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Spot at stage two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? Then stop just there. Never go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Orrell Post?
The short order of things, beginning with no starting the motor. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch the vehicle on. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is sucked from.
At a forecourt — Esso, BP or another — the attendants will normally help roll the car clear, if you ask. Your own driveway in Orrell Post is the place it should stay.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Leave the M58 — under a mile out of Orrell Post — at the next junction. A short hop across Orrell Post is a smaller job than a run towards Liverpool, under 15 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
Our arrival in Orrell Post, and what occurs next
Our van comes to your car wherever it has come to rest — your own drive, near Orrell Post Methodist Church, or by Orrell Holgate Academy. Both the work and our quote rest on three replies — which fluid, which quantity, and if it has run — so we ask. You get that quote on the phone, before anybody heads out.
Emptying the tank comes next, then a thorough flush of the system. 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. Once the fuel filter is cleaned — or replaced, where needed — fresh diesel is added, and then your vehicle gets tested. We don't go until it has been started and is running correctly.
If the motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies — so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Orrell Post
Orrell Post is a suburban area in Greater Manchester, situated approximately 91 metres above sea level in the north west of England. Orrell Post is located near the cities of Liverpool and Manchester, with Liverpool being the closest major city at a distance of around 14 miles. Orrell Post has a population of around 4183 people and is characterised by semi-detached housing. Orrell Post is close to nearby places such as Orrell, Tontine, and The Bell.
AdBlue drains about Orrell Post, and Greater Manchester beyond
Being a residential suburb, Orrell Post has the same vans as surrounding places — Tontine, The Bell — all the way across WN postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. A postcode starting WN5 8 gets the van to you fastest.
The vehicle doesn't need to shift. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street near Orrell Bookcycle, a lay-by on the way to Oldam's Fold, a driveway. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Living Faith Church, ring and ask instead of guessing.
Orrell Post drivers: the short version
Always, the cap; then, the tip. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Keep the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, across Greater Manchester.