Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Queniborough
Stop reading for a moment when your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then phone 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, carried out right where the car stands in Queniborough, is normally all it needs when found before your engine runs. Reading before the event? Then what follows covers how it comes about and how to stop it ever happening.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Diesel feeds your motor — yet many current diesels driven around Queniborough and Barkby carry another liquid too. The exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the fumes to clean it, from its own tank.
Different tanks, separate fillers. 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. At the petrol pump, the diesel side is topped up constantly. Much less regularly, the AdBlue side gets filled — mostly from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. The slip lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs around Queniborough
It's seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, your vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Peggs Lane before work, or in the car park at Horse And Groom on the way home.
Then the car is strange. A hire car, a new motor 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.
Lastly, the bottle fits: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in as readily, and after the pour begins, nothing halts it. Whether it occurs in East Goscote or the middle of Queniborough, it is the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Ratcliffe on the Wreake or a forecourt around Queniborough, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Read the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue ones are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually aren't.
- The size. On plenty of vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Lift the flap and look for a label — many motors mark what goes in which inlet just there.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler sits if it is not by your diesel cap, 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 at Syston.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
For the day the light comes on — anywhere you are in Leicestershire — a simple routine to use.
- Stop somewhere level, motor off, with time to spare — never hurried on the side of Main Street.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, perhaps, but it does the trick.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Only after that, start the car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Stage five is off limits.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Queniborough?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the engine. The fuel pump runs on many diesels as soon as your ignition is switched on — so keep it off. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is drawn from.
The staff at BP, Shell or another forecourt will normally lend a hand pushing the vehicle clear when you ask. If you're on your own drive in Queniborough, leave it where it stands.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the engine has already run. Queniborough lies under 10 miles from the M1; on it, take the first junction. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Queniborough is smaller work than a run of under 10 miles towards Leicester, and so say.
Queniborough: what happens when we arrive
Our engineers come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Queniborough Church of England Primary School, close to Queniborough War Memorial or on your own driveway. Those answers decide this work and our price, so our technicians ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether it has run. During the phone call itself, you are told the quote — ahead of anything else.
Draining your tank comes next, followed by a full flush of the fuel system. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Your engine is started next and checked to confirm it runs correctly, all before we head off.
If your engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a working 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 go to you for your insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Queniborough, for a moment
Queniborough is a village in Leicestershire, situated on the River Soar in the East Midlands region of England. Queniborough sits at an elevation of around 65 metres, with a mix of rural and suburban landscapes. Queniborough is located near several other villages, including East Goscote, Syston, and Rearsby, and is approximately 6 miles from Leicester. Queniborough has a population of around 852 people, predominantly living in detached houses.
AdBlue drains around Queniborough and across Leicestershire
Over LE postcodes, the teams covering Queniborough — a village — work the nearby locations too, Rearsby and Syston among them. Fastest of all: quote a LE7 3 postcode to the van.
The vehicle doesn't need to shift. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to King George's Field, a side street near St Mary: we drain the vehicle where it stands. Guessing doesn't help at the back of Syston Rugby Club, on a border, or anywhere hard to pin down; phone and check.
The short version for Queniborough motorists
Read the cap before you pour. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Keep the car off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, throughout Leicestershire.