Osbaldwick: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Keep the motor and ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. In Osbaldwick, catching it before the engine turns usually means a drain and a full flush where it stands. Reading before the event? Then the rest covers why it comes about and how to prevent it happening at all.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Plenty of modern diesels around Murton, like those in Osbaldwick, run on two fluids; your engine gets only the diesel. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There is a filler for every tank. Other vehicles put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty more have both together under one flap. At the petrol pump, your diesel side is topped up constantly. Seldom filled, AdBlue normally goes in out of a bottle, tipped by someone who has to stop and think what filler it needs. Mistakes happen in the gap between them.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Osbaldwick: how it happens
Carelessness seldom causes it. What does is three things coming up at once.
Haste comes from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a driveway off Osbaldwick Village, or on the way home in the car park outside Derwent Arms.
Next, the hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old car — since a rental car, a new car or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the pour after it has started. Tang Hall or the heart of Osbaldwick: it takes the same few seconds either way.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Check these before pouring, on a forecourt in Osbaldwick or a driveway over in Grimston. A few seconds, that's all.
- Position misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue ones are often blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally do not.
- Plenty of motors fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler is if it is not by the diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside York? Ask whoever drove the car last before you set off, rather than once the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
The day the light comes on, wherever around North Yorkshire, use this routine.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Osbaldwick Lane.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew it. It seems daft. It works.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where both sit under a flap, make sure it's closed before lifting the bottle.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Only then, start your car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Do not go on to step five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Osbaldwick?
Don't start your engine: that is where the short order of things starts. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels as soon as your ignition goes on — and so keep it off. Filling up with diesel will not weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the base of the tank, right where the fuel is taken from.
The staff at Shell, BP or any forecourt will usually help pushing your car clear when you ask. If you are on your own drive around Osbaldwick, leave it where it sits.
Where the engine has run by now, stop somewhere safe and switch it off. Osbaldwick lies under 15 miles from the A1(M); there, use the first exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards York, under 3 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Osbaldwick.
Our arrival in Osbaldwick, and what occurs next
We come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Osbaldwick Primary Academy, near St. Thomas, Osbaldwick or on your own drive. Both the work and our price depend on three replies — which fluid, what amount, and whether it has run — so our engineers ask. That price comes over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
After that: draining, then a thorough flush of the entire system. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Next our technicians start the car and make sure it runs smoothly before leaving.
If the motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork an insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Misfuelling cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Osbaldwick, briefly
Osbaldwick is a village situated on the banks of the River Ouse in North Yorkshire, close to the city of York. Osbaldwick lies at a low elevation of around 15 metres, and its riverside setting has influenced its development over time. Osbaldwick is characterized by its semi-detached housing stock and is located near other local places such as Tang Hall and Heslington. Osbaldwick is a relatively small community, with a population of approximately 2570 residents.
AdBlue drains round Osbaldwick, and North Yorkshire beyond
Osbaldwick is a village, and the vans that cover it also work the places near it, University and Heslington among them, across the YO postcode area. Fastest of all: give a YO10 3 postcode to our van.
Shifting your car isn't necessary. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Osbaldwick Village Green, a side street near Murton Airfield: our engineers drain the vehicle where it is. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Derwenthorpe Super Sustainable Centre? By a county line? Checking is better than guessing, and so phone.
The short version for Osbaldwick drivers
Tip nothing till you've read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Leave the car off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, throughout North Yorkshire.