Pudding Hill: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Pause reading for a moment if the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and phone 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, carried out just where your car stands in Pudding Hill, is usually what it takes when found before your engine runs. Here before the event? In that case what follows covers why it happens and what to stop it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Many current diesels on the roads around Pudding Hill and Grimethorpe carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust gas and cleans it.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the layout on many motors. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in the boot instead. Topping up your diesel side at the pump goes on constantly. Seldom filled, AdBlue normally goes in from a bottle, tipped by a driver who has to stop and think what filler it needs. The mistake grows in that gap between the two.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank happens around Pudding Hill
It is seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from the vehicle, and running out means limp mode — so a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Common Road, perhaps outside Burntwood Bar on the way home after work.
Next, the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old car — since a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers where your last one did not.
Third, the spout fits: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in as easily, and after the pour begins, no part stops it. It takes a few seconds, be it in Brierley or right in the heart of Pudding Hill.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Check these before pouring, on a forecourt around Pudding Hill or a driveway out in Highfield. Seconds, no more.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually is not. Read it instead of going by position.
- Plenty of motors fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Check for it.
- The handbook says where it lives when the filler is not next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Fitzwilliam, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
For the day the warning comes on — wherever it is around South Yorkshire — a simple routine to follow.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Park Road.
- 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 remains on. When both share a flap, make sure it's shut before lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, then look again — confirm your diesel filler remained shut throughout. After that, start the car.
Find at the second or third step that AdBlue went in the wrong filler? That's where you stop. Step five is off limits.
Pudding Hill: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Brief list, then. First: the engine stays off. The fuel pump starts on many diesels as soon as the ignition is switched on — so keep it off. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is pulled from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
The staff at Tesco, Stay Warm Solid Fuels LTD or any forecourt will usually help to push your car clear if you ask. At home around Pudding Hill? So your car remains where it is.
Already run? Stop when it is safe, then turn off. Pudding Hill sits under 10 miles from the A1(M); there, take the first exit. About how far did it go? Hopping across Pudding Hill is smaller work than a trip of under 10 miles to Wakefield, so say.
What takes place when we get there around Pudding Hill
Anywhere your car has stopped, be it by Brierley Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School, beside St Paul or at home, the van travels to it. Which fluid got in, the amount, and whether it ran: we ask since those answers set the work and quote. You get that quote 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, so it doesn't wash out on its own. A test comes at the end: before that, fresh diesel is added, and your filter is cleaned or changed if necessary. Before leaving, our technicians fire it up and check that it's running correctly.
If your engine hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Nothing upfront; you settle up that day. At the end, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. Before we get there, have a look at your policy; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Pudding Hill
Pudding Hill is a suburban area in South Yorkshire, situated approximately 8 miles from Wakefield and 153 miles from London. Pudding Hill sits at an elevation of 96 metres, surrounded by nearby places such as Brierley and Shafton Two Gates. Pudding Hill is characterised by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock, which reflects the typical residential development of the region. Pudding Hill has a population of around 1330 people, making it a small but established community.
AdBlue drains round Pudding Hill, and South Yorkshire beyond
Pudding Hill is a residential suburb, and our vans that cover it also work the places around it, West End and Shafton Two Gates among them, across the S postcode area. Fastest of all: give a S72 9 postcode to the van.
Your car doesn't need to move. We drain it where it is — a side street near Iron Age site, a lay-by on the way to Brierley Park, a drive. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Grimethorpe War Memorial.
For Pudding Hill motorists, the short version
Pour no AdBlue until you've read the cap. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will empty it where it stands, anywhere around South Yorkshire: switch the car off and call 0333 366 0103.