Primrose Hill: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case set this page down for now, keep the ignition and motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Primrose Hill. The remainder of this page explains why it happens and how to make sure it does not — handy if you're reading ahead of time.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Diesel feeds your engine — yet many modern diesels driven about Primrose Hill and Calder Vale hold another fluid too. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Every tank comes with one filler of its own. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Topping up your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on constantly. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less regularly. The error lives in that gap.
Primrose Hill: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
Carelessness rarely causes it. Instead is three things lining up at once.
Hurry comes from the warning. Your car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a driveway off Hardy Croft, or on the way home in the car park outside The Harewood Arms.
Next, your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old vehicle — since a hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't.
A spout-topped bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, after started, keeps on. It takes seconds, whether out in Wakefield or bang in the heart of Primrose Hill.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
A couple of seconds is all these take — so check them before you pour anything, on a driveway in East Moor or a forecourt around Primrose Hill.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally don't.
- Many motors fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many cars say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by the diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Wakefield Kirkgate.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in West Yorkshire that is.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of John Street.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, perhaps, yet it works.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where the two sit under a flap, confirm it is closed before the bottle comes up.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check again, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Skip step five altogether.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Primrose Hill?
Short list, then. First: your motor stays unstarted. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch it on. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is pulled from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
Ask the attendants to help push the vehicle away from the pump if you are on a forecourt — the Sainsbury's, the JET or anywhere else. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway in Primrose Hill.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the engine has already run. On the M1, under 3 miles from Primrose Hill, that means the next exit. Mileage counts — a quick hop across Primrose Hill makes a smaller job than heading under a mile towards Wakefield — so tell us about how far it went.
When we get there in Primrose Hill, what takes place?
Outside Wakefield St Marys Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School, close to Wakefield Spiritualist Church or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, our technicians come to it. Which fluid was put in, the quantity, and whether it ran: our engineers ask because the replies decide both work and quote. You hear that price by phone, before anyone heads out.
Emptying the tank comes next, followed by a full flush of your system. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own. After the fuel filter is flushed — or renewed, if required — clean diesel goes in, and then your car gets tested. Next we fire it up and check it runs smoothly before leaving.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour after we get there, as long as the engine hasn't run — and the pumps our engineers use are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet after dark beside a house. 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 is worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Primrose Hill
Primrose Hill is a suburban area located on the riverside in West Yorkshire, with a mix of flat housing and local amenities. Primrose Hill sits near the city of Wakefield, at an elevation of around 32 metres, and is close to nearby places such as Fall Ings and Park Hill. Primrose Hill is situated in a densely populated part of the region, with a population of approximately 6660 residents. Primrose Hill is also within commuting distance of larger cities, although it is some 160.7 miles from London.
AdBlue drains about Primrose Hill, and West Yorkshire beyond
Primrose Hill is a residential suburb, and our vans that cover it also work the places around it, Fall Ings and Park Hill among them, across the WF postcode area. Fastest of all: give a WF1 4 postcode for our van.
No need to move your car. Anywhere it stands — near West Yorkshire History Centre, on a layby heading to The Hepworth Wakefield Garden, on a drive — that is where it is emptied. Guessing won't help at the back of Church of St Andrew and St Mary with St Swithun, close to a border, or anywhere awkward to pin down; phone and ask.
For Primrose Hill motorists, the short version
Pour no AdBlue till you have read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Keep it off then call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, across West Yorkshire.