AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Owens Bank: How It Occurs and How to Avoid It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and your ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it's generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Owens Bank. Here in advance? In that case the rest covers why it comes about and what to prevent it happening at all.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Plenty of modern diesels on the roads round Owens Bank and Scropton carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust gas and cleans it.
There's a filler for each tank. Many of vehicles have a single flap for the two, whereas some move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Filling your diesel side at the pump happens constantly. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less often. Mistakes happen in the gap between them.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs in Owens Bank
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out completely, your vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Redhill Lane before work, or in the car park outside The Vine on the way home.
New-to-you vehicles are second, too. Hire cars, new motors and company cars place their fillers in new places, and habit goes for the cap it used on the old one.
No part stops the pour after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Owens Bank or out in Tutbury.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Alder Moor or a forecourt in Owens Bank, check these. They take a few seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually is not. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- The size. On plenty of vehicles 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 your filler isn't next to your diesel cap: the 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 outside Tutbury & Hatton, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
When the light goes on, anywhere in Staffordshire, follow this routine.
- Switch off once parked — level ground, motor stopped, and not rushed beside Holt's Lane on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, then look once more — making sure the diesel filler stayed closed throughout. Only then, start your car.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Skip step five entirely.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Owens Bank already?
Don't start your engine: that's how the short order of things begins. Keep your ignition off as well, since on many diesels switching it on alone runs your pump. Thinning it with extra diesel fails, because AdBlue sinks to the bottom rather than blending — and that's where the fuel is sucked from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it's the Essar or the Texaco, ask the attendants to help push the car clear of the pump. If you are on your own driveway around Owens Bank, leave it where it stands.
Already run? Stop when it is sensible, then switch off. On the M42, under 15 miles from Owens Bank, that means the next junction. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Owens Bank is less a job than a trip of under 15 miles towards Derby, so tell us.
Our arrival in Owens Bank, and what occurs next
Our van reaches your car wherever it has come to rest — your own drive, near Tutbury Museum & Information Centre, or outside Richard Wakefield CofE Primary Academy. Our technicians ask what went in, about how much, and whether it has run, since the answers settle this work and the quote. You hear that price by phone, before anybody sets off.
After that: a drain, then a full flush of the entire system. More than with petrol, it matters here: the crystals build up, some metals corrode, and nothing washes away on its own, however long it sits. Testing is at the end: before that, fresh diesel is added, and the filter is cleaned or replaced if necessary. We do not go until it has been started and is running smoothly.
If your motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents an insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. It is worth looking at your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Owens Bank itself
Owens Bank is a locality in Staffordshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 77 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Owens Bank lies near the cities of Derby and the towns of Tutbury, Fauld, and Hatton, and is approximately 114 miles northwest of London. Owens Bank has a population of around 1139 residents, who live in a relatively small and quiet community. Owens Bank is characterized by its scenic riverside setting, which offers pleasant views and walks along the river.
AdBlue drains across Staffordshire, Owens Bank included
Throughout DE postcodes, the vans covering Owens Bank — a small village — work the nearby locations too, Hatton and Fauld included. Quote a postcode that starts DE13 9, and the van arrives fastest.
The car does not need to shift. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street near Tutbury Castle, a lay-by on the way to Belmont Green, a driveway. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Tutbury Village Hall, ring and ask rather than guessing.
The short version for Owens Bank people
Read the cap before you pour. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave the car off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it waits, anywhere across Staffordshire.