Why It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Ruskington
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and the ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. Around Ruskington, finding it before your motor turns usually leaves a drain and a thorough flush where it stands. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Not one liquid but two: that's what plenty of modern diesels near Ruskington and Leasingham run, with diesel for your engine. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, side by side: that is the arrangement on a lot of vehicles. On others, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. Diesel goes in at each forecourt call-out, again and again. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less commonly. Mistakes happen in the gap between the two.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen in Ruskington?
It is hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from the vehicle, and running out leads to limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off High Street North, perhaps outside Shoulder of Mutton on the way home that evening.
The old car's cap is where the hand goes — yet a hire car, a new motor or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That is a second thing: an unfamiliar motor.
Third, the bottle goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in as readily, and once the pour starts, nothing stops it. Whether it occurs in Dorrington or the middle of Ruskington, it's the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Evedon or a forecourt in Ruskington, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually is not. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Look inside the fuel flap: plenty of motors have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows which it is if your filler is not next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside the nearest station.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
Wherever in Lincolnshire the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Manor Street, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park and switch off properly.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap works — after you have located your filler and read the cap.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Find at step two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? So stop just there. Leave out stage five altogether.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Ruskington already?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your engine. Do not switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is drawn from.
On a forecourt — D C Baxter Motors Ltd, BP or any other — the staff will normally help push the vehicle clear, if you ask. If you're on your own drive in Ruskington, leave the car where it sits.
Already started? Stop once it is safe, then turn off. On the M180, under 50 miles from Ruskington, that means the next exit. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Lincoln, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Ruskington.
When our engineers turn up in Ruskington, what takes place?
Anywhere the car came to rest, whether outside Winchelsea Primary School Ruskington, near All Saints Church or on your own drive, our van travels to it. Which fluid got in, the amount, and if it ran: our engineers ask since those replies set the work and price. You hear that price on the phone, before anyone heads out.
The system is then rinsed thoroughly, after your tank is cleared. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and none of that washes away unaided. Hence it matters more. Once the fuel filter is cleaned — or replaced, where required — fresh diesel is added, and finally your vehicle is tested. After that our engineers start the engine and confirm it runs properly before we go.
Using pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the motor hasn't run need roughly half an hour once our engineers are there. Your insurer usually wants the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours once this job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Before we get there, take a look at your policy; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Ruskington and where it is
Ruskington is a village in Lincolnshire, situated on the banks of the River Witham at an elevation of around 15 metres. Ruskington lies approximately 14.5 miles south of Lincoln and 106.9 miles north of London, with nearby villages including Dorrington, Anwick, and Bloxholm. Ruskington has a population of around 2308 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing.
AdBlue drains around Ruskington, and Lincolnshire beyond
Throughout NG postcodes, the teams that cover Ruskington — a village — work the nearby spots too, Bloxholm and Anwick among them. A postcode starting NG34 9 gets the van to you fastest.
The vehicle stays where it is. We drain it where it is — a side street near Ruskington Methodist Church, a lay-by on the way to Garden of Remembrance, a driveway. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Ruskington Library, ring and ask instead of assuming.
The short version for Ruskington people
First, the cap; then, the tip. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave it off and call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere around Lincolnshire.