Why It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Richmond
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and your ignition off and call 0333 366 0103. Usually, if the engine has not turned, it's drained and thoroughly rinsed where your car is around Richmond. The rest of this page explains why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't — handy if you're reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Not one liquid but two: that's how many newer diesels near Richmond and Holly Hill carry, with diesel for your motor. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it.
Each tank has one filler of its own. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, your diesel side gets filled constantly. The AdBlue side is topped up far less regularly, usually from a bottle, and normally by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake grows in that gap between them.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen around Richmond?
Carelessness seldom causes it. What does is three things coming up together.
On a drive off Victoria Road before work, or in the car park at The Ralph Fitz Randal on the way home: that is where the hurried top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the car warns you, and once it's gone, limp mode kicks in.
New-to-you motors come next, too. Rentals, new vehicles and company vehicles place their fillers in new places, and the hand goes for the cap it used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the pour after it has started. Friars Closes or the middle of Richmond: it is the same few seconds either way.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Look at these first, at a forecourt in Richmond or a driveway over in Hurgill. Seconds, no more.
- Read the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually are not.
- On many motors, the size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Open the filler flap and check for a label — many cars show what belongs in each filler just there.
- Cannot see it beside your diesel inlet? In that case check below the bonnet or in your boot — 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 Darlington.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
The day the light comes on, anywhere across North Yorkshire, follow this routine.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Ryders Wynd.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, perhaps, yet it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the vehicle on.
- Finish when the tank fills or the bottle is empty; until then, pour slowly through the own spout.
- Only after that, start your car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Leave out stage five entirely.
Richmond: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
The short order of things, beginning with no starting your motor. Don't switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel won't thin it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the bottom of the tank, just where the fuel is drawn from.
Ask the attendants to help roll the vehicle away from the pump if you're at a forecourt — the Morrisons, the Gulf or somewhere else. If you are on your own drive in Richmond, leave it where it is.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. The next junction is the place to come off when you are on the Catterick Bypass, under 5 miles from Richmond. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Ripon, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Richmond.
What takes place when we turn up in Richmond
Outside Trinity Academy Richmond, close to Georgian Theatre Royal or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, we come to it. Both the work and our quote rest on three replies — which liquid, what quantity, and if it's run — so we ask. That quote is given on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
Emptying your tank comes next, then a thorough flush of your system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and neither clears away by itself. That is why it matters more. A test is last: before that, fresh diesel is added, and your filter is cleaned or changed as needed. We don't leave until it has been started and is running properly.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour after our technicians get there, as long as your motor has not run — and the pumps our engineers use are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet at night outside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Richmond and where it is
Richmond is a town situated on the River Swale in North Yorkshire, with a mix of semi-detached housing and other residential properties. Richmond sits at an elevation of 134 metres, overlooking the surrounding countryside. Richmond is located near several smaller areas, including Friars Closes, Boulton Crofts, and Anchorage Hill, and is approximately 20 miles from the city of Ripon. Richmond has a population of around 7465 people and is about 211 miles north of London.
AdBlue drains around Richmond, and North Yorkshire beyond
Over DL postcodes, the teams that cover Richmond — a riverside town — work the nearby places too, Anchorage Hill and Boulton Crofts among them. Quote a postcode beginning DL10 4, and the van gets there quickest.
The car does not need to shift. We drain it where it is — a side street near Richmond War Memorial, a lay-by on the way to Friary Gardens, a driveway. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Stacey moore Yorkshire pencil Artist.
The short version for Richmond motorists
Pour no AdBlue till you've read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless, leave the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it waits, anywhere across North Yorkshire.