Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Red Bank: Why It Happens
Stop here a minute if the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, carried out just where your car sits around Red Bank, is usually what it needs if caught before your engine runs. Not happened yet? Below, the page explains the why it occurs and the how to prevent it for good.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Many modern diesels on the roads about Red Bank and Cowling carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Plenty of motors share a single flap for both, while some move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Topping up your diesel side at the pump happens constantly. Much less regularly, the AdBlue side is topped up — mostly from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Red Bank: how it occurs
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from the car, and running dry means limp mode — so a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Little Carr Lane, or outside Yarrow Bridge on the way home after work.
The old car's cap is where the hand reaches — yet a rental car, a new car or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That is the second thing: a strange vehicle.
Nothing halts the pour after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it takes place in Weld Bank or the middle of Red Bank, it is the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Be it a Red Bank forecourt or a driveway out in Limbrick, take a couple of seconds on these before any is poured in.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue ones are often blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually do not.
- Plenty of motors fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on many motors. Check for it.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by your diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Check when you pick up a rental or company car — at Chorley's car park, say — rather than when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Lancashire that is.
- Stop somewhere level, motor off, with time to spare — never rushing on the side of Berkeley Close.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, yes, yet it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the vehicle, close the cap and look a second time that the diesel cap never opened off.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Never go on to stage five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Red Bank?
Do not start your motor: that's how the short order of things begins. The fuel pump runs on many diesels the moment your ignition goes on — and so keep it off. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
Ask the staff to help push your car away from the petrol pump if you're at a forecourt — the Morrisons, the Asda or somewhere else. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive in Red Bank.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Red Bank sits under a mile from the M61; on it, take the next exit. A short hop across Red Bank is a smaller job than a run towards Preston, under 10 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
Red Bank: what occurs when our engineers arrive
Outside St George's Church of England Primary School, Chorley, close to St Gregory RC Church or on your own drive: wherever your car has stopped, our technicians come to it. We ask what was put in, about how much, and if it's run, since those replies settle the work and our price. During the phone call itself, you are told the price — before dispatch.
Then that tank is emptied and your system rinsed thoroughly. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and neither washes away unaided. Hence it matters more. A test is at the end: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and your filter is flushed or replaced if necessary. Your engine is started next and tested to confirm it runs properly, all before our technicians head off.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour once we get there, provided your motor has not run — and the pumps our engineers use are safe on a live forecourt yet quiet at night beside a house. No money in advance; you settle up on the day. At the end, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. While we travel, have a look at your policy; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Red Bank and where it is
Red Bank is a suburban area in Lancashire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of around 80 metres. Red Bank lies approximately 8.9 miles from Preston and is part of a larger residential area that includes nearby Weld Bank and Heath Charnock. Red Bank has a population of around 4798 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Red Bank is located in the North West region of England, about 180.8 miles from London.
AdBlue drains round Red Bank, and Lancashire beyond
Red Bank is a residential suburb, and our teams that cover it also work the places around it, Heath Charnock and Chorley Moor among them, across the PR postcode area. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting PR7 3.
Shifting the vehicle isn't needed. We drain it where it is — a side street near Victory Park, a lay-by on the way to Spurrier Square, a driveway. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Eaves Green Community Centre, ring and ask instead of assuming.
The short version for Red Bank drivers
First, the cap; after that, the tip. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it wherever it stands, anywhere in Lancashire: keep the vehicle off and ring 0333 366 0103.