Porterhouse: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and your ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. Normally, when the motor hasn't run, it's emptied and thoroughly flushed where the car sits around Porterhouse. Here before the event? In that case the rest covers how it happens and what to prevent it happening at all.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Plenty of newer diesels on the roads about Porterhouse and Greenhillocks carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it.
Every tank has one filler of its own. Other cars put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others place both together under one flap. The diesel side is fuelled at the pump all the time. Far less commonly, the AdBlue side is filled — normally from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank occur in Porterhouse?
Carelessness seldom causes it. What does is three things coming up at once.
On a driveway off Mill Hill Close before work, or in the car park outside Groover's Arms on the way home: that is 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 is gone, limp mode follows.
New-to-you motors are next, too. Hire cars, new cars and company motors place their fillers in new places, and habit reaches for the cap it used on the old one.
Nothing 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. Nuttals Park or the middle of Porterhouse: it is the same few seconds in both.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A couple of seconds is all these take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a driveway in The Elms or a forecourt in Porterhouse.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- Many vehicles give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Lift the filler flap and look for a label — many cars mark which goes in which inlet right there.
- Cannot find it next to your diesel inlet? In that case look beneath the bonnet or in your boot — the owner's manual says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Langley Mill? Check with the person who drove the car last before leaving, rather than when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
When the light comes on, wherever across Derbyshire, follow this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Calke Rise, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park and switch off first.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly. It does the trick.
- Both behind one flap? So make sure the cap on the diesel side is still shut ahead of raising the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Spot at stage two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? So stop just there. Never carry on to stage five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Porterhouse?
Brief list, then. Top of it: your motor remains off. Do not switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel will not dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of that tank, just where the fuel is drawn from.
The staff at Sainsbury's, The Co-operative or another forecourt will usually lend a hand to push your car clear if you ask. If you're on your own drive in Porterhouse, leave it where it is.
Already started? Stop when it is sensible, then turn off. Porterhouse sits under 5 miles from the M1; on it, take the next exit. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Porterhouse is less a job than a trip of under 10 miles towards Derby, so say.
What occurs when our technicians turn up in Porterhouse
Wherever the vehicle came to rest, whether by Ripley St John's Church of England Primary School and Nursery, near Blend Youth Project or at home, our van comes to it. Our technicians ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether it has run, since the answers decide the work and the price. No one sets off until you've heard our quote over the phone.
Then that tank is drained and the fuel system flushed thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more here than with petrol. After the fuel filter has been flushed — or replaced, where required — clean diesel is added, and then the vehicle gets tested. We do not go until it has been fired up and is running properly.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour once our engineers arrive, provided your engine hasn't run — and the pumps our engineers use are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet after dark beside a house. No money upfront; you settle up on the day. At the end, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. Misfuelling cover is included in many insurance policies — so use the wait to look at yours.
About Porterhouse itself
Porterhouse is a suburban area in Derbyshire, situated approximately 9 miles from Derby and 119 miles from London, with a population of around 4095 people. Porterhouse sits at an elevation of 149 metres, characterised by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock. Porterhouse is located near other local areas such as Nuttals Park and Peasehill, and is part of the wider East Midlands region. Porterhouse has a relatively small and settled community,
AdBlue drains around Porterhouse and across Derbyshire
Porterhouse is a residential suburb, and our vans that cover it also work the towns near it, Peasehill and Greenwich among them, across the DE postcode area. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting DE5 3.
The car does not need to shift. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Porterhouse Road Park, a side street close to The Salvation Army Ripley: we drain the vehicle where it is. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Ripley Elim Pentecostal Church, ring and ask instead of guessing.
In short, for Porterhouse drivers
Tip nothing till you've read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Keep it off and call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, across Derbyshire.