How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Priestthorpe
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and your ignition off and call 0333 366 0103. Normally, if the motor has not turned, it is emptied and fully purged where the vehicle sits around Priestthorpe. Nothing happened yet? Below, the page explains the why it occurs and the how to avoid it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Not one liquid but two: that's how plenty of newer diesels near Priestthorpe and Bailey Hills carry, with diesel for the motor. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There is a filler for each tank. Under one flap, side by side: that's the layout on many cars. On others, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in the boot instead. Diesel gets filled at every filling station call-out, week in, week out. Far less commonly, the AdBlue side gets topped up — mostly from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. The mistake lives in that gap.
Priestthorpe: how AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs
Carelessness rarely causes it. What does is three things coming up at once.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, your vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Langley Road before work, or in the car park at The Birches on the way home.
Then your car is strange. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand hits 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, so nothing stops the pour once it has started. Crow Nest or the middle of Priestthorpe: it takes the same few seconds either way.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Look at these first, at a forecourt in Priestthorpe or a drive over in Gilstead. A few seconds, that's all.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally isn't. Read it rather than going by position.
- Many motors give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by your diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at Bingley, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around West Yorkshire that is.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Park Road.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" aloud as unscrewing it. It seems silly. It does the trick.
- The diesel cap remains on. When the two sit under a flap, make sure it's shut before lifting the bottle.
- Finish once your tank fills or the bottle is empty; before that, tip gently through the own spout.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Leave out stage five altogether.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Priestthorpe?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your motor. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels as soon as your ignition is switched on — so keep it off. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is pulled from.
At a forecourt — BP, Texaco or another — the attendants will normally help push the vehicle clear, if you ask. At home in Priestthorpe? Then your car stays put.
Where your motor has run by now, stop somewhere safe then switch the vehicle off. Leave the M606 — under 10 miles out of Priestthorpe — at the next exit. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Bradford, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Priestthorpe.
What occurs when we get there in Priestthorpe
We come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Beckfoot Priestthorpe Primary School & Nursery, close to Bingley Five Rise Locks or on your own drive. Both the work and the price depend on three replies — which fluid, which quantity, and if it's run — so our engineers ask. You get that quote by phone, before anyone sets off.
Next: draining, then a thorough flush of the whole system. With AdBlue that matters 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. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. We don't go until it has been fired up and is running correctly.
Unrun cars usually mean a half-hour job from arrival. The kit is fine on a live filling station, and quiet enough for a driveway late at night. Nothing upfront; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. Before we get there, have a look at your policy; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Priestthorpe itself
Priestthorpe is a suburban area situated on the riverside in West Yorkshire, with a mix of housing types although predominantly detached homes. Priestthorpe sits at an elevation of 153 metres, approximately 5.4 miles from Bradford and 177.2 miles from London. Priestthorpe is located near other local places such as Crow Nest, Ferncliffe, and Eldwick, and has a population of around 5259 residents.
Priestthorpe and West Yorkshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Priestthorpe is a residential suburb, and our vans that cover it also work the towns near it, Ferncliffe and Eldwick among them, across the BD postcode area. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting BD16 4.
Shifting your car is not needed. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Prince of Wales Park, a side street close to Bingley Methodist Church: our technicians drain the vehicle where it sits. Guessing doesn't help behind Sacred Heart Church, close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe; phone and check.
For Priestthorpe motorists, the short version
Pour no AdBlue till you have read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave it off and ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it sits, anywhere in West Yorkshire.