Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Roundthorn: Why It Occurs
Stop here for a moment when the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and phone 0333 366 0103. In Roundthorn, finding it before your motor turns normally means a drain and a full flush on the spot. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the page covers the why it happens and the how to prevent it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel feeds your motor — but many modern diesels seen around Roundthorn and Moorhey carry a second fluid as well. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, where spraying treats the gas.
Every tank has one filler of its own. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is fuelled at the petrol pump all the time. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less often. That gap is where the slip lives.
Roundthorn: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out completely, your vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Beaufont Drive before work, or in the car park at The Manor on the way home.
Then your car is new. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Third, the bottle fits: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in just as readily, and after the tip begins, nothing halts it. Glodwick Lows or the middle of Roundthorn: it is the same few seconds in both.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Pitses or a forecourt around Roundthorn, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Check inside your fuel flap: many motors have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by your diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Mossley (Manchester)? Ask the person who drove the vehicle last before leaving, rather than when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Greater Manchester that is.
- Pull in somewhere level, engine off, with time to spare — not hurried on the side of Aspull Street.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you have found your filler and read it.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave it on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Find at stage two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? So stop just there. Leave out stage five altogether.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Roundthorn?
Short list, then. First: the motor remains unstarted. Keep the ignition off too, since on many diesels switching it on by itself starts your fuel pump. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is sucked from.
The staff at Shell, Gulf or another forecourt will usually help to push the car away if you ask. Your own driveway in Roundthorn is the place it stays.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your motor has already run. On the M60, under 3 miles from Roundthorn, that means the next junction. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Roundthorn is smaller work than a run of under 10 miles to Manchester, so say.
Our arrival around Roundthorn, and what occurs next
The van comes to your car wherever it stopped — your own driveway, near Hope Congregational Church, or outside Roundthorn Primary Academy. What liquid was put in, the quantity, and whether it ran: our technicians ask because those answers decide both work and price. On the phone call itself, you hear our price — ahead of anything else.
Then that tank is cleared and the system cleaned thoroughly. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and neither clears away unaided. That is why it counts more. Once your filter has been cleaned — or replaced, where needed — fresh diesel goes in, and finally your car is tested. Before we go, we start the engine and make sure that it is running smoothly.
With pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where your engine hasn't run take about half an hour after we are there. Nothing in advance; you settle up that day. At the end, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Roundthorn and where it is
Roundthorn is a suburban area in Greater Manchester, situated near the riverside and approximately 7.5 miles from Manchester city centre. Roundthorn sits at an elevation of around 180 metres, with nearby areas including Glodwick Lows and New Earth. Roundthorn has a population of around 10362 people, predominantly living in terraced housing. Roundthorn is located in the North West region of England, about 162.4 miles from London.
AdBlue drains about Roundthorn, and Greater Manchester beyond
Over OL postcodes, our teams that cover Roundthorn — a residential suburb — work the surrounding places too, Fenny Hill and New Earth included. A postcode starting OL4 5 gets the van to you fastest.
The car stays where it is. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Glodwick Lows, a side street near Jamia Mosque, Dar-ul-Aloom Naqshbandia and Community Welfare Centre: we drain it where it stands. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Glodwick Cricket Club.
Roundthorn motorists: the short version
Read the cap before you tip. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere across Greater Manchester, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless — so leave it off and call 0333 366 0103.