How It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Risley
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and your ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Risley. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Plenty of modern diesels in Birchwood, as well as Risley, run on two fluids; the engine takes only the diesel. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust stream and cleans it.
Different tanks, separate fillers. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the arrangement on many vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in the boot instead. Filling the diesel side at the petrol pump goes on constantly. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less often. The mistake lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank occur around Risley?
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
Hurry follows from the warning. Your car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a drive off Daten Avenue, or on the way home in the car park at Turf & Feather.
The old car's filler is where the hand reaches — yet a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That is the second thing: a strange motor.
No part stops 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. It takes a few seconds, whether out in Birchwood Park or bang in the heart of Risley.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Locking Stumps or a forecourt around Risley, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Read the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue caps are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually are not.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says which it is when your filler isn't next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Birchwood? Check with the person who drove the vehicle last before you set off, not when the light goes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
Wherever around Cheshire the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Pull in on level, motor off, with time to spare — never hurried on the side of Temple Court.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- Both under a single flap? Then confirm the cap on the diesel filler is still shut ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Skip step five altogether.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Risley already?
Don't start the engine: that is how the short order of things begins. The fuel pump starts on many diesels as soon as your ignition is switched on — so keep it off. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is pulled from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
On a forecourt — BP, Asda or any other — the staff will usually help roll the car away, if you ask. If you are on your own driveway in Risley, leave the vehicle where it sits.
Already started? Stop when it is safe, then switch off. On the M62, under a mile from Risley, that means the next exit. A short hop across Risley is a smaller job than a run towards Salford, under 15 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
Our arrival in Risley, and what occurs next
Outside Locking Stumps Community Primary School, near Steel Polo or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, our engineers come to it. We ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it has run, because those replies decide this work and the quote. No one sets off before you have had the price by phone.
The system is then purged thoroughly, once that tank is cleared. With AdBlue that counts 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 cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Next our technicians fire it up and make sure it runs correctly before we go.
Unrun cars mostly mean a half-hour job after arrival. The kit is safe on a live forecourt, and hushed enough for a driveway after dark. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork your insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. It is worth looking at your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Risley
Risley is a suburban area in Cheshire, situated inland at an elevation of 28 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Risley lies approximately 10 miles from Salford and is close to nearby places such as Birchwood Park and Gorse Covert. Risley has a population of around 1267 people and is part of the wider North West region. Risley is located about 166 miles from London, making it a relatively distant suburb from the capital city.
AdBlue drains in Risley and across Cheshire
Risley is a residential suburb, and the vans that cover it also work the towns near it, Gorse Covert and Birchwood Centre among them, across the WA postcode area. Quote a postcode that starts WA3 6, and our van gets there quickest.
Your car doesn't need to shift. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near Birchwood Park, a lay-by on the way to Glover Road Roundabout, a driveway. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Birchwood Town Council? By a border? Asking beats guessing, so ring.
Risley motorists: the short version
Pour no AdBlue until you have read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Keep it switched off then phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, throughout Cheshire.