AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Preston: How It Occurs and How to Prevent It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and the ignition off and call 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Preston. The rest of this page explains why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't — useful if you are reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of modern diesels around Deepdale, as well as Preston, carry on two liquids; your motor takes just the diesel. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust stream and cleans it.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Other vehicles keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others place the two side by side under one flap. At the pump, the diesel side gets filled constantly. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less regularly, usually from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the mistake lives.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank take place in Preston?
It is rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a drive off Lancaster Road before work, or in the car park outside Golden Cross Hotel heading home: that is where the rushed top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low the car tells you, and if it's gone, limp mode kicks in.
Then the vehicle is strange. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spouted bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, once begun, keeps on. Avenham or the middle of Preston: it is the same few seconds either way.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A few seconds is all these take — so check them before you pour anything, on a drive in Gallows Hill or a forecourt around Preston.
- Check the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually are not.
- Many cars give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- Can't see it next to the diesel inlet? Then check beneath the bonnet or inside the boot — the owner's manual will say where.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at the nearest station, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
Wherever across Lancashire the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Turn off after you park — level ground, motor off, and not in a rush beside Earl Street at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where the two sit under a flap, confirm it is shut before the bottle comes up.
- Stop when your tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; before that, tip gently through the own spout.
- Close the cap, and look once more — making sure your diesel filler stayed shut throughout. After that, start the vehicle.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Stage five is off limits.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Preston already?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with no starting the engine. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels as soon as your ignition goes on — and so keep it off. Thinning it with extra diesel won't work, because AdBlue settles to the bottom instead of blending — and that is where the fuel is sucked from.
The staff at Gulf, Texaco or any forecourt will normally help to push your car clear if asked. On your own drive around Preston? Then your car remains put.
When your engine has run already, stop safely then turn it off. The next exit means the place to come off if you are on the Preston Bypass, under 3 miles from Preston. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Lancaster, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Preston.
Preston: what takes place when our engineers arrive
Anywhere your car came to rest, be it by St Ignatius' Catholic Primary School, Preston, near St. John's Shopping Centre or on your own drive, our van comes to it. Those replies decide the work and the price, so our engineers ask what was put in, about how much, and if it's run. No one sets off before you've had the quote over the phone.
Emptying your tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the fuel system. 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 counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. Filter flushed or, if needed, replaced; clean diesel in; and then a check of your car. Before we go, our technicians fire it up and make sure that it's running properly.
Using pumps safe on a working 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 once our engineers arrive. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Preston itself
Preston is a city in Lancashire, situated in the North West of England, approximately 20 miles from Lancaster. Preston sits inland, at an elevation of around 44 metres, and is characterised by its predominantly terraced housing. Preston is home to a number of nearby places, including Avenham, Adelphi, and Frenchwood, and has a population of around 101,000 people. Preston is located about 190 miles northwest of London.
AdBlue drains around Preston, and Lancashire beyond
Adelphi and Frenchwood are among the places around Preston, a city, that the same teams cover, throughout PR postcodes. Fastest of all: quote a PR1 2 postcode to our van.
The vehicle doesn't need to shift. The drain takes place on the spot, be it a drive, a street near Preston New Markets, or a layby towards Preston Peace Garden. Guessing doesn't help at the back of The ARC Cinema, on a boundary, or somewhere hard to pin down; ring and check.
For Preston motorists, the short version
Read the cap before you pour. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave it off and call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it sits, anywhere across Lancashire.