Risegate: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and your ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, done right where the vehicle stands in Risegate, is normally all it takes when found before your motor runs. The remainder of this page covers why it happens and how to ensure it does not — useful if you are reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of modern diesels around Wargate, as well as Risegate, run on two fluids; the engine gets only your diesel. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust gas and cleans it.
Each tank has its own filler. 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. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less regularly. That gap is where the slip lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank take place in Risegate?
Carelessness rarely explains it. Instead is three things coming up together.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from your car, and running dry leads to limp mode — so a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Shepperson's Avenue, perhaps outside The Black Horse on the way home that evening.
Then, your hand goes for the cap it knew on the old car — because a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not.
A spout-topped bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, once started, carries on. Gosberton Cheal or the middle of Risegate: it takes the same few seconds in both.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Whether a Risegate forecourt or a drive over in Quadring, spend a couple of seconds on these before anything goes in.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- The size. On plenty of cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- Can't see it next to the diesel filler? In that case check below the bonnet or inside the boot — the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Spalding? Check with whoever drove it last before you set off, not once the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
For the day the warning appears — anywhere it is in Lincolnshire — a routine to use.
- Stop somewhere level, engine off, with time to spare — never rushing on the side of Chesboule Lane.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check the 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.
- Before you start the car, close the cap and look again that your diesel cap never came off.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Don't go on to stage five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Risegate?
The short order of things, beginning with no starting the motor. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels the moment the ignition goes on — and so leave it off. Diluting it with more diesel won't work, because AdBlue sinks to the base rather than mixing — and that's where the fuel is sucked from.
The staff at Morrisons, Sainsbury's or any forecourt will usually lend a hand to push the car away if asked. If you are on your own driveway in Risegate, leave it where it stands.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Come off the A1(M) — under 25 miles out of Risegate — at the first exit. Mileage matters — a short hop across Risegate is a smaller job than heading under 25 miles towards Peterborough — so tell us roughly how far it went.
When our technicians arrive around Risegate, what happens?
Our technicians come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Clough and Risegate Community Primary School, close to Majorum Hall or on your own driveway. What liquid went in, the amount, and whether it ran: our engineers ask because those answers decide both work and price. During the call itself, you are told the quote — ahead of dispatch.
Then your tank is drained and the fuel system cleaned thoroughly. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and none of it washes out by itself. That is why it matters more. Filter flushed or, where needed, replaced; fresh diesel in; and then a check of the car. The engine is fired up next and tested to be sure it runs correctly, all before our technicians go.
With pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where the engine hasn't run need about half an hour after our engineers are there. The insurer usually wants an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours once this job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. It is worth checking your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Risegate
Risegate is a small village in Lincolnshire, situated on the riverside at a low elevation of around 7 metres. Risegate lies near the villages of Gosberton Cheal, Westhorpe, and Gosberton Clough, and is approximately 19.5 miles from Peterborough. Risegate has a population of around 738 people, predominantly living in detached houses. Risegate is located in the East Midlands region, about 93.1 miles north of London.
Risegate and Lincolnshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Being a village, Risegate shares its vans nearby places — Westhorpe, Gosberton Clough — right across PE postcodes and the wider area around them. Quickest of all: give a PE11 4 postcode for our van.
There's no need to shift your car. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street close to St. Gilbert & St. Hugh, a lay-by on the way to Boston Road Brick Pits, a drive. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of St. Gilbert & St. Hugh Church Hall, ring and ask rather than assuming.
Risegate people: the short version
Pour nothing till you've read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave the car off and call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it sits, anywhere around Lincolnshire.