Over Knutsford: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and the ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before your motor runs, it is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Over Knutsford. Not happened yet? Further down, the page covers the reasons it takes place and the ways to prevent it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of newer diesels around Ollerton, like those in Over Knutsford, run on two liquids; the engine gets only your diesel. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust stream and cleans it.
There is a filler on each tank. Some cars keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty more place the two side by side under one flap. Topping up your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less often. That gap is where the mistake lives.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank take place around Over Knutsford?
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from the vehicle, and letting it run out leads to limp mode — so a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Fir Tree Avenue, perhaps at Legh Arms on the way home after work.
The old car's cap is where your hand reaches — but a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That is the second thing: an unfamiliar car.
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. Cross Town or the middle of Over Knutsford: it takes the same few seconds either way.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Whether a Over Knutsford forecourt or a driveway out in Mobberley, spend a few seconds on these before any is poured in.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of motors, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside the fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Look for it.
- The handbook shows where it lives if your filler isn't next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at Knutsford, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
For the day the light appears — anywhere it is around Cheshire — a simple routine to follow.
- Not in a rush on the side of Parkfield Road, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park and switch off properly.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" out loud as unscrewing it. It sounds daft. It works.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where the two share a flap, confirm it is closed before lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Stage five stays off limits.
Over Knutsford: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Do not start the engine: that's where the short order of things begins. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels as soon as your ignition is switched on — so leave it off. Diluting it with more diesel won't work, because AdBlue sinks to the bottom rather than mixing — and that's where your fuel is drawn from.
The attendants at Esso, Shell or any forecourt will usually lend a hand to push the car away if you ask. On your own drive around Over Knutsford? Then your car remains put.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Come off the M6 — under 3 miles out of Over Knutsford — at the first exit. A short hop across Over Knutsford is a smaller job than a run towards Salford, under 15 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
When we turn up around Over Knutsford, what takes place?
Our technicians come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside St Vincent De Paul Catholic Primary School, near Booth Park or on your own drive. Our technicians ask what went in, about how much, and if it's run, since those answers settle the work and our quote. The quote is given on the call, before any van leaves.
Then your tank is cleared and the fuel 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, and so it doesn't wash out on its own. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. We don't leave until it has been fired up and is running correctly.
Unstarted cars usually need a half-hour visit from arrival. The equipment is safe on a busy filling station, and hushed enough for a residential street late at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is part of many insurance policies — so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Over Knutsford itself
Over Knutsford is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Cheshire, with a mix of housing types although predominantly detached homes. Over Knutsford sits at an elevation of 69 metres, close to the town of Knutsford and near other local places such as Cross Town and Shaw Heath. Over Knutsford is located near Salford, which is approximately 13 miles away, and is about 155 miles from London.
AdBlue drains around Over Knutsford, and Cheshire beyond
Over Knutsford is a residential suburb, and our vans that cover it also work the towns around it, Knutsford and Shaw Heath among them, across the WA postcode area. A postcode starting WA16 8 gets our van to you fastest.
Shifting your car isn't needed. Draining happens on the spot, be it a drive, a street by St Cross, or a layby on the way to Sanctuary Moor. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Brook Street Chapel, ring and ask instead of guessing.
Over Knutsford motorists: the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave the vehicle off then call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it sits, anywhere around Cheshire.