Poynton: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and the ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, carried out just where the car stands around Poynton, is normally what it takes when found before the engine runs. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
No single liquid but two: that's what plenty of modern diesels around Poynton and Hope Green run, with diesel feeding your engine. Your exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the fumes to fresh it, from its own tank.
Each tank comes with one filler of its own. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. Filling the diesel side at the petrol pump happens constantly. Much less often, the AdBlue side is topped up — mostly from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. That gap is where the mistake lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Poynton: how it occurs
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
Hurry comes from the warning. Your car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a drive off London Road South, or on the way home in the car park at Vinehop.
New-to-you motors are next, as well. Hire cars, new vehicles and company vehicles place their fillers in new places, and the hand reaches for the cap it used on the old one.
A spouted bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, once started, keeps on. Midway or the heart of Poynton: it is the same few seconds in both.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Skellorn Green or a forecourt in Poynton, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- On plenty of vehicles, the size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Open the flap and check for a label — many motors mark what belongs in which inlet just there.
- The handbook shows where it is when your filler is not next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The previous driver knows. Check as you pick up a hire car or fleet car — at the nearest station's car park, perhaps — rather than when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
When the light comes on, anywhere in Cheshire, use this routine.
- Turn off once parked — level ground, motor stopped, and not in a rush beside Chester Road at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" out loud while unscrewing it. It seems daft. It does the trick.
- The two behind a single flap? So make sure the lid on the diesel filler stays shut before lifting the bottle.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the car, shut the cap and check a second time that your diesel cap never came off.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Don't carry on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Poynton already?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with not starting your engine. Don't switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Topping up with diesel won't weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of the tank, just where fuel is taken from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it is the Esso or the BP, ask the attendants to help push the vehicle clear of the pump. If you're on your own driveway around Poynton, leave the car where it stands.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. The next junction is the place to come off when you are on the M60, under 5 miles from Poynton. A short hop across Poynton is a smaller job than a run towards Manchester, under 15 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
Our arrival in Poynton, and what occurs next
Outside Vernon Primary School, near Poynton War Memorial or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, our technicians come to it. The replies decide the work and our quote, so we ask what got in, about how much, and if it has run. Nobody sets off before you've heard our price by phone.
Draining your tank comes next, then a full flush of the fuel system. Much more than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: the crystals build up, certain metals are attacked, and none of it washes out on its own, no matter how long it is left. Testing is at the end: before that, clean diesel is added, and your filter is flushed or changed as needed. Your engine is started next and tested to make sure it runs properly, all before our engineers leave.
With pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your engine has not run need about half an hour after our engineers arrive. Nothing upfront; you settle up on the day. At the end, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. It is worth looking at your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Poynton, briefly
Poynton is a town in Cheshire, situated on the banks of the River Goyt, with a mix of rural and urban landscapes. Poynton has a relatively low elevation of 96 metres and is located near several smaller settlements, including Midway, Hockley, and Wardsend. Poynton is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock and is within commuting distance of Manchester, which is approximately 10 miles away. Poynton is also about 152 miles northwest of London.
AdBlue drains across Cheshire, Poynton included
Hockley and Wardsend are among the places around Poynton, a riverside town, that the same vans cover, throughout SK postcodes. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting SK12 1.
The vehicle stays where it is. The drain happens on the spot, whether a driveway, a street near St. George's Church, or a lay-by towards Wigwam Wood. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Poynton Baptist Church, ring and ask instead of assuming.
Poynton drivers: the short version
Tip nothing until you've read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere across Cheshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — so leave the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103.