--- title: Explained: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank Portico canonical: https://www.petrolinadieselcar.co.uk/adblue-in-diesel/portico-merseyside/ location: Portico county: Merseyside latitude: 53.435110 longitude: -2.772640 service: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank updated: 2026-10-22 --- # AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Portico: Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case put this page aside for now, leave your ignition and engine off, then phone 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, carried out right where your car stands around Portico, is usually all it takes if found before your engine runs. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't. ## Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle Many newer diesels on the roads around Portico and Toll Bar carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. 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. Some motors keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others have the two together under one flap. The diesel side is topped up at the pump all the time. Seldom topped up, AdBlue usually comes from a bottle, poured by a driver who must stop and think what filler to use. Mistakes happen in the gap between them. ## Portico: how AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place Carelessness seldom causes it. Instead is three things coming up at once. On a driveway off Lonsdale Avenue before work, or in the car park at The York heading home: that's where the rushed top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low the car warns you, and if it's gone, limp mode kicks in. Then your car is new. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand reaches for the cap it would have 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, and so nothing stops the tip once it has started. Whether it occurs in Grange Park or the middle of Portico, it's the same few seconds. ## Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler A couple of seconds is all these take — so check them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Eccleston Park or a forecourt around Portico. - Read the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally aren't. - Many vehicles give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two. - The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many motors say there which fuel goes where. - Cannot find it next to the diesel filler? Then check beneath the bonnet or in the boot — the handbook says which. - The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Eccleston Park, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on. ## Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up On the day the warning comes on — wherever you are around Merseyside — a routine to use. - Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Uplands Close. - Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick. - Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle. - Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty. - Close the cap and check once more. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car. If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Stage five stays out. ## Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Portico? Short list, then. Top of that: your motor remains off. Leave the ignition off as well, since on plenty of diesels it by itself runs the pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is pulled from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it. If you are at a forecourt, whether it's the Texaco or the Shell, ask the staff to help push the vehicle clear of the petrol pump. Your own driveway in Portico is the place it should stay. Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your engine has already run. Portico lies under 3 miles from the M57; on it, use the first junction. Mileage matters — a short hop across Portico is a smaller job than heading under 10 miles towards Liverpool — so tell us roughly how far it went. ## When we get there around Portico, what occurs? By Nutgrove Methodist Primary School, near Our Lady Help of Christians or on your own drive: wherever your car has stopped, our engineers come to it. Both the work and our price rest on three replies — what liquid, what amount, and if it's run — so we ask. No one heads out before you've heard our price over the phone. Next: a drain, then a full flush of the whole system. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and neither clears away unaided. That is why it counts more. Once your filter is flushed — or renewed, where needed — clean diesel goes in, and then your vehicle is tested. We do not leave until it has been started and is running smoothly. If the motor hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Your insurer usually wants an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours once this job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. It is worth checking your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies. ## About Portico Portico is a suburban area in Merseyside, situated approximately 8.7 miles from Liverpool, with a mix of semi-detached housing and local amenities. Portico sits inland, at an elevation of around 71 metres, and is close to nearby places such as Grange Park and Brown Edge. Portico forms part of the larger urban area surrounding Liverpool, with easy access to the city and its facilities. Portico has a population of around 4347 people, living in a predominantly residential environment. ## AdBlue drains around Portico, and Merseyside beyond Brown Edge and Nutgrove are among the towns around Portico, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, over WA postcodes. Fastest of all: quote a WA10 3 postcode for our van. There's no need to move the car. Wherever it stands — near St Matthew, in a layby heading to St Benedicts Wood, on a drive — that's where it gets cleared. Tricky to pin down, like the back of St Austin's Church? Close to a border? Checking beats assuming, so phone. ## In short, for Portico people Tip no AdBlue until you have read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave the car off and ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it stands, anywhere across Merseyside.