Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Park End
Pause reading a minute if the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and ring 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, done just where your vehicle stands around Park End, is normally all it needs when caught before your engine runs. The remainder of this page explains why it takes place and how to ensure it does not — useful if you are reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
No single fluid but two: that's how plenty of modern diesels near Park End and Easterside carry, with diesel feeding your motor. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, where a spray treats the fumes.
Every tank has a filler of its own. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the arrangement on many vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. Topping up the diesel side at the pump goes on all the time. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less frequently. That gap is where the slip lives.
Park End: how AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
On a driveway off Southmead Avenue before work, or in the car park outside North Ormesby Institute heading home: that is where the rushed top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low the vehicle warns you, and once it is gone, limp mode kicks in.
The old car's filler is where your hand goes — but a hire car, a new motor or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That is the second factor: an unfamiliar car.
A spouted bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, after begun, carries on. It's seconds, whether out in Ormesby or right in the centre of Park End.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Check these first, at a forecourt around Park End or a drive out in Beechwood. A few seconds, that's all.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally is not. Read it instead of going by position.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- Open the filler flap and check for a label — plenty of vehicles show which goes in which inlet right there.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler sits if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Marton? Check with whoever drove the car last before leaving, rather than once the light goes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
For the day the light appears — anywhere you are around North Yorkshire — a routine to use.
- Pull in on level, motor off, with time to spare — not hurried on the side of Highmead Walk.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the vehicle on.
- Finish when the tank fills or the bottle is empty; before that, tip slowly through its built-in spout.
- Only then, start the car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Never carry on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Park End already?
Do not start the motor: that's how the short order of things begins. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch the car on. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is drawn from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
Ask the attendants to help push your car clear of the pump if you are at a forecourt — the BP, the Morrisons or anywhere else. At home in Park End? Then the vehicle remains put.
When your motor has run already, stop somewhere safe and switch the vehicle off. On the A1(M), under 15 miles from Park End, that means the next junction. Mileage counts — a quick hop across Park End is a smaller job than driving under 25 miles towards Durham — so tell us about how far it went.
Park End: what takes place when our technicians get there
By Park End Primary School, close to Southlands or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our technicians come to it. Our technicians ask what got in, about how much, and if it's run, because the answers decide the work and the price. The price comes over the phone, before any van leaves.
The system is then cleaned thoroughly, once the tank is cleared. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and none of it clears away unaided. Hence it matters more. Once your filter has been cleaned — or renewed, if required — fresh diesel is added, and then the vehicle is tested. After that our technicians fire it up and check it runs correctly before leaving.
If your motor hasn't 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 after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Park End
Park End is a suburban area in North Yorkshire, situated inland at an elevation of 27 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Park End lies approximately 22 miles from Durham and 214 miles from London, placing it in a relatively remote location. Park End is surrounded by other nearby places, including Ormesby, Berwick Hills, and Pallister, and has a population of around 6185 residents. Park End forms a distinct community within the wider area, with its own character and amenities.
AdBlue drains across North Yorkshire, Park End included
As a residential suburb, Park End has the same vans as surrounding areas — Berwick Hills, Pallister — all the way through TS postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. Fastest of all: give a TS3 0 postcode for our van.
The vehicle does not need to move. Anywhere it sits — beside Ormesby Methodist Church, on a layby en route to Middlebeck (Millennium Green), on a drive — that's where it gets drained. Assuming doesn't help behind Church of the Ascension, on a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe; phone and ask.
The short version for Park End people
Read the cap before you pour. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere in North Yorkshire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same — and so leave the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103.