How It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Rotcher
Keep the motor and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Caught before the motor runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Rotcher. The rest of this page covers why it occurs and how to ensure it does not — useful if you're reading ahead of time.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Diesel feeds the engine — yet plenty of newer diesels seen about Rotcher and Hill Top carry another fluid as well. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Different tanks, different fillers. Some cars put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty more place the two together behind one flap. At the pump, your diesel side is topped up constantly. Seldom topped up, AdBlue usually goes in out of a bottle, tipped by a driver who must stop and think what cap it needs. That gap is where the mistake lives.
Rotcher: how AdBlue in the diesel tank happens
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
On a drive off Rotcher Lane before work, or in the car park outside Silent Woman heading home: that is where the rushed top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low the vehicle tells you, and if it's empty, limp mode kicks in.
The old car's cap is where your hand goes — yet a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That is a second factor: an unfamiliar motor.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the tip after it has started. It takes seconds, whether in Blakestones or right in the centre of Rotcher.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Be it a Rotcher forecourt or a driveway over in Slaithwaite, spend a few seconds on these before any goes in.
- Read the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue caps are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually are not.
- The size. On many cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Check inside your fuel flap: many cars carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says where it lives if the filler is not next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park at Slaithwaite? Ask whoever drove it last before you set off, rather than once the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
For the day the warning appears — wherever you are in West Yorkshire — a routine to follow.
- Not in a rush on the side of Blakestones Road, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park then switch off properly.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew it. It sounds silly. It works.
- Both behind one flap? So confirm the cap on your diesel side stays shut ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Finish when the tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; until then, pour slowly using the own spout.
- Only then, start your car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Leave out stage five altogether.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Rotcher already?
Brief list, then. Top of it: the engine remains off. Do not switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Thinning it with more diesel fails, because AdBlue sinks to the bottom rather than blending — and that is where the fuel is pulled from.
The staff at the nearest petrol station, Morrisons or another forecourt will normally lend a hand to push the car away when you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive in Rotcher.
Where your engine has run by now, stop safely then turn the car off. On the M62, under 3 miles from Rotcher, that means the next exit. A short hop across Rotcher is a smaller job than a run towards Bradford, under 15 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
Our arrival in Rotcher, and what happens next
We come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Slaithwaite Church of England Voluntary Controlled Junior and Infant School, near Slaithwaite Community Centre or on your own drive. What liquid went in, the quantity, and whether it ran: we ask because the replies set the work and price. On the phone call itself, you are told our quote — before anything else.
Your system is then rinsed thoroughly, once your tank is emptied. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. Once the filter has been flushed — or renewed, if needed — clean diesel goes in, and then the car is tested. Before we leave, our engineers start it and make sure that it's running correctly.
Unstarted vehicles mostly mean a half-hour job from arrival. The equipment is fine on a busy forecourt, and quiet enough for a driveway after dark. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents your insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Wrong-fuel cover is part of many insurance policies — so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Rotcher
Rotcher is a suburban area situated on the lakeside in West Yorkshire, with a mix of terraced housing and a population of around 2219 residents. Rotcher sits at an elevation of 167 metres, approximately 13 miles from Bradford and 163.7 miles from London. Rotcher is close to nearby places such as Blakestones, Lower Holme, and Upper Holme, and is part of the wider Bradford urban area.
AdBlue drains in Rotcher and across West Yorkshire
Rotcher is a residential suburb, and the teams that cover it also work the towns around it, Lower Holme and Upper Holme among them, across the HD postcode area. Give a postcode beginning HD7 5, and our van arrives fastest.
There's no need to shift the car. Wherever it stands — near Slaithwaite Parish Church, on a lay-by heading to Howgate Wood, at home — that's where it is cleared. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Slaithwaite Civic Hall, ring and ask rather than guessing.
The short version for Rotcher people
Tip nothing till you have read the cap. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will empty it where it stands, wherever around West Yorkshire: switch the car off and call 0333 366 0103.