Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Pitsmoor: Why It Occurs
Keep your engine and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Normally, when the engine hasn't run, it is drained and thoroughly purged where your car is around Pitsmoor. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it does not.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Not one liquid but two: that's how many newer diesels near Pitsmoor and Neepsend carry, with diesel for the motor. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Different tanks, separate fillers. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Filling your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on constantly. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less often, usually from a bottle, and normally by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. The slip lives in that gap.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Pitsmoor: how it occurs
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from the car, and letting it run dry leads to limp mode — so a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Burngreave Road, perhaps outside Bay Horse Inn on the way home that evening.
Next, the hand goes for the cap it knew on the old motor — because a hire car, a new car or a company car places the fillers where your last one didn't.
No part halts the pour once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It takes a few seconds, whether in Woodside or right in the heart of Pitsmoor.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Check these first, at a forecourt around Pitsmoor or a drive over in Upper Crabtree. A few seconds, no more.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally is not. Read it rather than going by position.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on many vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows which it is if your 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 Sheffield? Check with whoever drove it last before leaving, rather than when the light goes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in South Yorkshire that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Minna Road, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park and switch off first.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap works — after you have found the filler and read the cap.
- The diesel cap stays on. When both sit under a flap, make sure it is shut before the bottle comes up.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the vehicle, shut the cap and check again that the diesel cap was never opened off.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Never go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Pitsmoor?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the engine. Leave the ignition off too, since on many diesels switching it on by itself starts the fuel pump. Topping up with diesel won't dilute it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the base of your tank, just where fuel is taken from.
Ask the staff to help push the car clear of the petrol pump if you're on a forecourt — the Tesco, the JET or anywhere else. On your own drive around Pitsmoor? Then your car stays put.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Come off the Tinsley Viaduct — under 3 miles out of Pitsmoor — at the first exit. Distance counts — a quick hop across Pitsmoor is a smaller job than driving under 3 miles to Sheffield — so say about how far it went.
What happens when our technicians turn up around Pitsmoor
Anywhere the vehicle has stopped, be it by Byron Wood Primary Academy, near Christ Church Pitsmoor or on your own drive, our van travels to it. Both the work and the price depend on three answers — which fluid, what amount, and if it has run — so our technicians ask. Nobody sets off before you've had our price by phone.
Your system is then purged thoroughly, once that tank is emptied. With AdBlue that matters 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. Once the filter is cleaned — or renewed, if required — fresh diesel goes in, and finally your vehicle gets tested. After that our technicians fire it up and make sure it runs correctly before we go.
With pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where the motor hasn't run take about half an hour after our engineers are there. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents your insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Pitsmoor, briefly
Pitsmoor is a suburban area located just north of Sheffield city centre in South Yorkshire, sitting at an elevation of around 98 metres. Pitsmoor is characterised by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock and is situated near other local areas such as Woodside and Burngreave. Pitsmoor is close to the amenities of Sheffield, while also being around 142 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across South Yorkshire, Pitsmoor included
Lower Crabtree and Burngreave are among the towns around Pitsmoor, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, over S postcodes. A postcode starting S3 9 gets our van to you fastest.
There's no need to shift your car. Wherever it stands — near St Catherine's Catholic Church, in a lay-by en route to Abbeyfield Park, on a drive — that's where it gets drained. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you're near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Boy and the Bird.
In short, for Pitsmoor motorists
Before you pour, read the cap. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will empty it wherever it stands, anywhere around South Yorkshire: switch it off and call 0333 366 0103.