AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Peterlee: How It Happens and How to Avoid It
Leave the motor and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. In Peterlee, catching it before your engine runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush where it stands. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the page explains the reasons it takes place and the how to avoid it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Diesel goes to the engine — yet plenty of modern diesels seen round Peterlee and Easington Colliery hold another liquid as well. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Other motors keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty more have both side by side behind one flap. Filling the diesel side at the petrol pump goes on constantly. Far less frequently, the AdBlue side gets filled — mostly from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. The error lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank happens in Peterlee
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
On a drive off Surtees Road before work, or in the car park outside The Five Quarter on the way home: that's where the rushed top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low your car warns you, and if it's empty, limp mode kicks in.
New-to-you vehicles are next, too. Hire cars, new cars and company motors place their fillers in new places, and the hand goes for the cap it used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the pour after it has started. Whether it occurs in Horden or the middle of Peterlee, it is the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Check these first, on a forecourt in Peterlee or a driveway over in Hesleden. A few seconds, no more.
- Position can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally don't.
- Plenty of motors give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Check inside your fuel flap: plenty of cars have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by the diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Horden.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Durham that is.
- Turn off once parked — flat ground, motor off, and never in a rush by Burnhope Way 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.
- Both behind one flap? Then confirm the lid on the diesel side is still shut before raising the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before starting your car, close the cap and check again that the diesel cap never opened off.
Find at stage two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? So stop right there. Do not go on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Peterlee already?
The short order of things, starting with no starting your engine. The fuel pump starts on many diesels the moment the ignition goes on — so keep it off. Filling up with diesel will not dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the base of the tank, right where the fuel is drawn from.
On a forecourt — Asda, Shell or any other — the attendants will normally help roll your car clear, if you ask. On your own drive in Peterlee? So your car remains where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the engine has already run. Leave the A1(M) — under 10 miles out of Peterlee — at the first exit. Distance counts — a quick hop across Peterlee makes a smaller job than heading under 10 miles towards Durham — so tell us roughly how far it went.
Peterlee: what takes place when our technicians get there
By Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Primary School, close to Castle Dean Shopping Centre or on your own drive: wherever your car has stopped, our engineers come to it. Both the work and the quote rest on three replies — what fluid, what quantity, and whether it's run — so our engineers ask. You get that quote on the phone, before anyone heads out.
Your system is then flushed thoroughly, after the tank is cleared. 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 that matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. The filter cleaned or, where needed, swapped; fresh diesel in; and then a check of your vehicle. The motor is fired up next and tested to make sure it runs smoothly, all before our engineers head off.
If your motor has not run, the majority of 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. Your insurer will ask for the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies — so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Peterlee itself
Peterlee is a town in County Durham, situated on the coast of north-east England, approximately 101 metres above sea level. Peterlee lies near the cities of Durham and Sunderland, and is close to the villages of Horden, Shotton, and Little Thorpe. Peterlee has a population of around 22,251 people, and its housing stock is predominantly semi-detached homes.
Peterlee and Durham: AdBlue drains across the area
Peterlee is a new town, and the teams that cover it also work the places near it, Shotton and Little Thorpe among them, across the SR postcode area. A postcode starting SR8 1 gets our van to you fastest.
No need to shift the vehicle. Anywhere it sits — beside Peter Lee Memorial Methodist Church, on a lay-by en route to Wood House Park, at home — that's where it gets emptied. Guessing won't help behind Peterlee Youth Centre, close to a boundary, or anywhere awkward to pin down; phone and check.
In short, for Peterlee motorists
Read the cap before you pour. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it wherever it is, wherever around Durham: switch it off then ring 0333 366 0103.