AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Queens Park: How It Happens and How to Avoid It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and the ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. Usually, if your motor has not turned, it's emptied and fully rinsed where your vehicle is in Queens Park. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
No single fluid but two: that is how plenty of modern diesels near Queens Park and Kings Heath carry, with diesel feeding your motor. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There's a filler for every tank. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. Filling your diesel side at the petrol pump happens constantly. The AdBlue side is topped up far less frequently, usually from a bottle, and normally by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. Mistakes happen in the gap between the two.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Queens Park: how it occurs
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from your car, and running dry means limp mode — so a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Cranbrooke Road, or at Queens Park Wmc on the way home that evening.
Then, your hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old motor — because a rental car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
Nothing stops the pour after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It takes seconds, whether out in Kingsthorpe or right in the heart of Queens Park.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A few seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you pour anything, on a drive in St James End or a forecourt in Queens Park.
- Check the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally aren't.
- The size. On plenty of cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Open the filler flap and look for a label — many vehicles show what goes in each filler right there.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler is if it is not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Northampton? Check with whoever drove the car last before leaving, not once the light goes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
For the day the light appears — anywhere it is around Northamptonshire — a routine to use.
- Not in a rush on the side of Cecil Road, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park and switch off first.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start the vehicle: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Find at step two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? So stop just there. Stage five stays out.
Queens Park: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Brief list, then. Top of that: your engine remains off. The fuel pump starts on many diesels the moment the ignition is switched on — so keep it off. Topping up with diesel won't thin it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of the tank, right where fuel is drawn from.
Ask the attendants to help roll the vehicle away from the pump if you're on a forecourt — the Texaco, the Gulf or somewhere else. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive around Queens Park.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. On the M1, under 5 miles from Queens Park, that means the next exit. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Queens Park is less a job than a trip of under 25 miles towards Milton Keynes, so say.
When our engineers get there in Queens Park, what occurs?
Wherever the vehicle came to rest, whether by Malcolm Arnold Preparatory School, beside Holy Trinity Church or at home, the van travels to it. Both the work and our price depend on three replies — which liquid, what quantity, and if it's run — so our engineers ask. On the call itself, you hear the price — ahead of dispatch.
Next: a drain, then a thorough flush of the whole system. Much more than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: the crystals form, some metals are attacked, and none of it clears out on its own, however long it is left. Once your filter has been cleaned — or replaced, where needed — clean diesel is added, and finally your car gets tested. The motor is started next and checked to confirm it runs properly, all before our technicians head off.
If your engine has not 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. The insurer will ask for the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. Wrong-fuel cover is included in many insurance policies — so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Queens Park and where it is
Queens Park is a suburban area in Northamptonshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 77 metres. Queens Park lies near the outskirts of Northampton, close to neighbouring areas such as Kingsthorpe and Kingsley Park. Queens Park has a mix of housing types, but is predominantly characterized by terraced homes. Queens Park is also within commuting distance to larger cities like Milton Keynes and London.
Queens Park and Northamptonshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout NN postcodes, our vans covering Queens Park — a residential suburb — work the surrounding spots too, Kingsley Park and Kingsthorpe Hollow included. Fastest of all: give a NN2 6 postcode to the van.
Your car stays put. Draining happens right there, whether a driveway, a street near Holy Trinity & St Pauls Church Hall, or a layby on the way to Kingsthorpe Park. Guessing won't help behind The Potters House, on a border, or somewhere hard to pin down; ring and ask.
In short, for Queens Park people
First, the cap; then, the tip. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Leave the car switched off then call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, across Northamptonshire.