Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Potter Hill: Why It Occurs
Keep the motor and ignition off and call 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. A drain plus a thorough flush, carried out just where the car sits around Potter Hill, is normally all it takes if caught before your engine runs. The remainder of this page explains why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't — handy if you are reading before it has happened.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Many newer diesels around Howbrook, like those in Potter Hill, carry on two liquids; your engine takes only your diesel. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, where a spray treats the gas.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Many of vehicles share a single flap for the two, while others put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Filling the diesel side at the pump happens all the time. Rarely filled, AdBlue normally goes in from a bottle, poured by a driver who must stop and think which filler it needs. It is in that gap that the error lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Potter Hill: how it takes place
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
On a drive off Hague Lane before work, or in the car park at Crown Inn on the way home: that is where the hurried top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low the vehicle warns you, and once it's gone, limp mode follows.
The old car's filler is where the hand reaches — but a hire car, a new car or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That is a second thing: an unfamiliar car.
Nothing halts the tip once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It's seconds, be it in High Green or right in the centre of Potter Hill.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Look at these first, on a forecourt in Potter Hill or a drive out in Burncross. A few seconds, that's all.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally is not. Read it rather than going by position.
- The size. On plenty of motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Look inside your fuel flap: plenty of cars have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by your diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park at Chapeltown? Check with the person who drove the car last before you set off, not once the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
For the day the warning comes on — anywhere it is in South Yorkshire — a simple routine to use.
- Turn off after you park — level ground, engine stopped, and not in a rush beside Potter Hill Lane on the verge.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap works — after you have located the filler and read it.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Stop when your tank fills or the bottle runs dry; before that, tip slowly using its built-in spout.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Find at stage two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? So stop just there. Stage five is out.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Potter Hill?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the engine. Don't switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel won't thin it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the bottom of the tank, just where fuel is drawn from.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it is the JET or the Shell, ask the attendants to help roll your car clear of the pump. On your own drive in Potter Hill? Then the vehicle stays put.
Where the motor has run already, pull over safely and switch the vehicle off. Potter Hill sits under 3 miles from the M1; there, use the first exit. A short hop across Potter Hill is a smaller job than a run towards Sheffield, under 10 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
What happens when we get there around Potter Hill
Our technicians come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Angram Bank Primary School, close to Angram and Bank Community Centre or on your own drive. Those replies settle this work and the quote, so we ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it's run. You hear that price by phone, before anybody heads out.
Your system is then cleaned thoroughly, once the tank is emptied. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own. Filter flushed or, where needed, replaced; fresh diesel in; and then a test of the vehicle. Before we go, we start it and check that it's running smoothly.
Using pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where the motor has not run need about half an hour once our technicians are there. No money upfront; you settle up that day. At the end, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. While we travel, have a look at your policy; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Potter Hill
Potter Hill is a suburban area situated near several lakes in South Yorkshire, with a mix of terraced housing and local amenities. Potter Hill sits at an elevation of 174 metres, overlooking the surrounding countryside and providing views of the nearby water features. Potter Hill is located close to the city of Sheffield, approximately 6.2 miles away, and is near other suburban areas such as High Green and Charltonbrook. Potter Hill has a population of around 3344 residents, living in a predominantly terraced housing environment.
AdBlue drains across South Yorkshire, Potter Hill included
Over S postcodes, the teams that cover Potter Hill — a residential suburb — work the surrounding spots too, Mortomley and Charltonbrook among them. Quote a postcode that starts S35 4, and the van gets there quickest.
There's no need to shift the car. Anywhere it sits — near St Mary's Catholic Club, on a lay-by heading to Cottam Road Open Space, on a drive — that is where it is emptied. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Ecclesfield Parish Community Room? By a county line? Asking is better than guessing, and so ring.
For Potter Hill people, the short version
Pour no AdBlue until you have read the cap. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it where it stands, wherever in South Yorkshire: switch it off and ring 0333 366 0103.