Outlane: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Pause here a minute when your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then phone 0333 366 0103. Around Outlane, catching it before your motor runs usually leaves a drain and a thorough flush where it stands. Reading in advance? In that case the rest covers why it happens and how to prevent it happening at all.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Diesel feeds the engine — but plenty of modern diesels seen round Outlane and Lower Hirst carry another fluid as well. The exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the gas to clean it, from a separate tank.
Different tanks, different fillers. Other vehicles put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty more place the two together behind one flap. The diesel side is fuelled at the pump all the time. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less commonly. It's in the gap that the error lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen around Outlane?
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
On a drive off Stainland Road before work, or in the car park at The White Swan heading home: that is where the hurried top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low your car warns you, and once it's empty, limp mode kicks in.
The old car's filler is where your hand reaches — but a hire car, a new motor or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That's the second thing: an unfamiliar motor.
A spouted bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, after begun, keeps on. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Outlane or out in Slack.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Look at these first, on a forecourt in Outlane or a drive out in Outlane Moor. Seconds, no more.
- Check the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally are not.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many motors say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says where it lives when the filler isn't next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- The previous driver knows. Ask when you pick up a hire car or company car — at Slaithwaite's car park, perhaps — rather than when the light appears.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
Wherever in West Yorkshire the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of New Hey Road.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap works — after you have located your filler and read it.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Only after that, start the car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Step five stays out.
Outlane: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
The short order of things, beginning with no starting your engine. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch the car on. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is sucked from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it is the Scientific Lubricants or the BP, ask the staff to help roll the vehicle clear of the pump. At home in Outlane? Then your car remains put.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Leave the M62 — under a mile out of Outlane — at the next junction. Distance matters — a short hop across Outlane is a smaller job than driving under 15 miles towards Bradford — so tell us about how far it went.
Outlane: what occurs when we get there
The van comes to your car anywhere it stopped — your own driveway, near St Mary Magdalene's Church, or by Scapegoat Hill Junior and Infant School. Our engineers ask what got in, roughly how much, and if it has run, because those replies decide the work and our quote. On the phone call itself, you are told our price — before dispatch.
Then your tank is cleared and the system purged thoroughly. 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. Testing comes at the end: before that, clean diesel is added, and the fuel filter is cleaned or changed if necessary. Before leaving, we start the engine and check that it is running correctly.
If the engine has not run, most 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 at night. The insurer usually wants an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both once this job is done. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. It is worth looking at your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Outlane, for a moment
Outlane is a small village in West Yorkshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 271 metres. Outlane has a mix of housing types, but is predominantly characterised by terraced properties. Outlane is located near several other small villages, including Slack, Greenfield, and Sowood, and is around 10 miles from the city of Bradford. Outlane is a relatively small community, with a population of approximately 579 people.
Outlane and West Yorkshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Greenfield and Sowood are among the towns near Outlane, a village, that the same teams cover, over HD postcodes. A postcode starting HD3 3 gets our van to you fastest.
The vehicle remains put. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street near Outlane Methodist Church, a lay-by on the way to Back Wood, a driveway. Assuming won't help behind Roman Fort (Site), on a border, or anywhere hard to describe; ring and check.
In short, for Outlane people
Always, the cap; after that, the tip. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it waits, anywhere in West Yorkshire.