AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Parkgate: Why It Happens and How to Avoid It
Pause reading for a moment when your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Around Parkgate, finding it before your motor turns usually means a drain and a thorough flush where it stands. Reading before the event? In that case the rest covers how it comes about and how to prevent it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
No single liquid but two: that is what plenty of modern diesels around Parkgate and Doagh carry, with diesel feeding your motor. Your exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the fumes to clean it, from its own tank.
There is a filler for every tank. Many of vehicles share a single flap for the two, whereas others move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled on each filling station call-out, week in, week out. Rarely topped up, AdBlue usually comes out of a bottle, tipped by a driver who has to stop and think what filler to use. The slip lives in that gap.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Parkgate: how it occurs
Carelessness rarely explains it. Instead is three things lining up at once.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from your car, and running dry means limp mode — so a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Heugh Road, perhaps at the pub in the village on the way home after work.
Then your car is new. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, after started, keeps on. It takes a few seconds, be it out in Donegore or bang in the heart of Parkgate.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A few seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a drive in Millbank or a forecourt in Parkgate.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally do not.
- Plenty of motors give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Lift the flap and check for a label — many motors show what goes in which inlet right there.
- The handbook says where it is if the filler isn't next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside the nearest station? Ask whoever drove it last before you set off, not when the light goes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
On the day the warning comes on — wherever it is around County Antrim — a simple routine to use.
- Not in a rush on the side of Chalet Road, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park and switch off first.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap works — once you've found your filler and read the cap.
- Both behind a single flap? Then make sure the cap on the diesel filler is still shut ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Stop once the tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; before that, pour gently using the own spout.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Find during the second or third stage that the bottle went in the wrong filler? That is where you stop. Do not go on to step five.
Parkgate: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your engine. Keep the ignition off as well, since on many diesels switching it on alone runs your pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is pulled from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it is the the nearest petrol station or the another forecourt nearby, ask the staff to help roll the vehicle clear of the petrol pump. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive in Parkgate.
Where your motor has run already, stop somewhere safe then turn the car off. Leave the M77 — over 50 miles out of Parkgate — at the first exit. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Belfast, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Parkgate.
Our arrival in Parkgate, and what takes place next
Anywhere your car has stopped, whether by the local primary school, beside the centre or on your own drive, our van travels to it. Our technicians ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether it has run, because the replies determine the work and the price. You hear that price on the phone, before anyone heads out.
Emptying that tank comes next, then a full flush of the system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more here than with petrol. A test comes last: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and the filter is cleaned or changed if necessary. Before we leave, our engineers fire it up and confirm that it is running correctly.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour once our engineers get there, provided your motor hasn't run — and the pumps our engineers use are fine on a live forecourt and quiet after dark outside a house. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork an insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. While we travel, take a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Parkgate, briefly
Parkgate is a small locality in County Antrim, situated inland at an elevation of 69 metres, approximately 10.8 miles northwest of Belfast. Parkgate is characterized by its semi-detached housing and is located near the villages of Donegore, Dunadry, and Templepatrick. Parkgate has a population of around 531 residents, making it a relatively small community in the area. Parkgate is also relatively distant from London, at a distance of 332.4 miles.
AdBlue drains round Parkgate, and County Antrim beyond
Throughout BT postcodes, the teams covering Parkgate — a small village — work the nearby places too, Templepatrick and Dunadry included. Quickest of all: quote a BT39 0 postcode to the van.
Shifting your car isn't needed. We drain it where it is — a side street close to a street just off the centre, a lay-by on the way to the green space at the edge of the village, a driveway. Tricky to pin down, like the back of the far end of the built-up part? Close to a border? Asking is better than assuming, and so phone.
The short version for Parkgate drivers
Read the cap before you tip. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it where it is, wherever in County Antrim: keep the car off then call 0333 366 0103.