How It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Riddlesden
Leave the motor and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Caught before your engine runs, it is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Riddlesden. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page covers the reasons it takes place and the ways to prevent it for good.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Many newer diesels around Strong Close, as well as Riddlesden, run on two liquids; your engine gets only the diesel. Your exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the gas to fresh them, from its own tank.
There's a filler on each tank. Plenty of cars share a single flap for both, whereas some move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is topped up at the pump all the time. Rarely topped up, AdBlue usually goes in from a bottle, poured by someone who must stop and think which cap to use. The slip lives in that gap.
Riddlesden: how AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place
It's seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from the vehicle, and letting it run dry leads to limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Lynton Drive, or outside The Marquis of Granby on the way home that evening.
Then, your hand goes for the cap it knew on the old vehicle — because a hire car, a new motor or a company car places the fillers where your last one didn't.
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 once it has started. It takes seconds, be it in Stockbridge or bang in the heart of Riddlesden.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you pour anything, on a drive in Worth Village or a forecourt in Riddlesden.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally isn't. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- The size. On plenty of motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Check inside the fuel flap: many motors carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by the diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The previous driver knows. Ask when you collect a rental or company car — from Keighley's car park, perhaps — rather than once the warning appears.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
On the day the light appears — anywhere it is across West Yorkshire — a routine to use.
- Stop somewhere level, motor off, with time to spare — not hurried on the side of Granby Drive.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew it. It sounds daft. It does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave it on.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start your car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Don't carry on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Riddlesden?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with not starting your engine. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels the moment your ignition goes on — so keep it off. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is drawn from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it's the Shell or the Texaco, ask the attendants to help roll the car clear of the pump. If you're on your own drive around Riddlesden, leave the car where it sits.
Already run? Stop once it is safe, then switch off. The next junction is the place to come off when you are on the M606, under 10 miles from Riddlesden. Mileage matters — a quick hop across Riddlesden is a smaller job than driving under 10 miles towards Bradford — so say roughly how far it went.
When our technicians arrive around Riddlesden, what takes place?
The van comes to your car wherever it stopped — your own driveway, beside St Mary the Virgin, or outside Riddlesden St Mary's CofE Primary School. The answers determine the work and our price, so our engineers ask what went in, roughly how much, and if it has run. Nobody heads out until you have heard the quote over the phone.
The system is then rinsed thoroughly, after the tank is emptied. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and none of that clears away by itself. That is why it matters more. The filter flushed or, where needed, replaced; clean diesel in; and then a check of the vehicle. Then our technicians fire it up and make sure it runs correctly before we go.
Using pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where the motor has not run need about half an hour after we are there. The insurer will ask for an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both once this job is done. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. Before we get there, take a look at your insurance documents; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Riddlesden and where it is
Riddlesden is a suburban area in West Yorkshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 114 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Riddlesden lies approximately 7.9 miles from Bradford and is close to nearby places such as Stockbridge, Barley Cote, and Aireworth. Riddlesden has a population of around 4690 residents and is located about 179.5 miles from London. Riddlesden forms part of the wider urban area surrounding Bradford.
AdBlue drains around Riddlesden, and West Yorkshire beyond
Throughout BD postcodes, the vans that cover Riddlesden — a residential suburb — work the surrounding spots too, Aireworth and Barley Cote among them. Quickest of all: quote a BD20 5 postcode for the van.
No need to move your car. Anywhere it sits — near Riddlesden United Reformed Church, on a lay-by en route to Victoria Park, on a drive — that's where it is drained. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of East Riddlesden Hall, ring and ask rather than guessing.
In short, for Riddlesden motorists
Pour nothing until you've read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless, leave it off and ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it sits, anywhere across West Yorkshire.