Sadberge: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then set this page aside a moment, leave your ignition and engine off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Around Sadberge, catching it before your motor turns normally means draining and a full flush on the spot. Not happened yet? Further down, the page covers the reasons it occurs and the how to prevent it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Not one liquid but two: that's what many newer diesels around Sadberge and Red Hall run, with diesel for the motor. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust gas to clean it.
Every tank has a filler of its own. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the layout on a lot of vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in the boot instead. The diesel side is topped up at the petrol pump all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less regularly, normally from a bottle, and normally by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the mistake lives.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank take place in Sadberge?
Carelessness rarely causes it. What does is three things coming up at once.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from your car, and letting it run dry leads to limp mode — so a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Middleton Road, perhaps outside The Tuns At Sadberge on the way home after work.
New-to-you cars are next, too. Hire cars, new motors and company vehicles place their fillers in new places, and habit goes for the cap used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, once started, carries on. Whether it occurs in Great Burdon or the middle of Sadberge, it is the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Check these before pouring, on a forecourt around Sadberge or a driveway out in Middleton St George. A few seconds, no more.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally do not.
- On plenty of cars, the size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside the fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Check for it.
- Can't find it next to your diesel filler? Then check beneath the bonnet or inside the boot — the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before knows. Ask as you collect a rental or fleet car — at Dinsdale's car park, perhaps — rather than when the light appears.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
For the day the light appears — wherever you are across Durham — a simple routine to use.
- Not in a rush on the side of The Orchard, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park then switch off properly.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap works — after you have found your filler and read the cap.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start the vehicle: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Spot at stage two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? Then stop just there. Leave out step five altogether.
Sadberge: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Brief order, then. First: the motor remains off. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels as soon as the ignition is switched on — so keep it off. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is drawn from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
Ask the attendants to help roll the vehicle away from the pump if you're at a forecourt — the the nearest petrol station, the BP or anywhere else. At home in Sadberge? Then the car stays where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the motor has already run. Sadberge sits under 5 miles from the A1(M); there, take the first exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Durham, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Sadberge.
Our arrival around Sadberge, and what happens next
The van reaches your car wherever it stopped — your own drive, near St Andrew's, or by Whinfield Primary School. Which liquid got in, the quantity, and if it ran: our engineers ask since those replies decide the work and quote. The price is given over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
Emptying the tank comes next, then a full flush of your system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. The filter cleaned or, where needed, swapped; fresh diesel in; then a check of your vehicle. Then our technicians fire it up and make sure it runs properly before we go.
If your motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents an insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. It's worth looking at your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Sadberge itself
Sadberge is a village situated on the lakeside in County Durham, with an elevation of 72 metres above sea level. Sadberge lies approximately 16.7 miles from the city of Durham and is surrounded by nearby places such as Great Burdon, Barmpton, and Haughton le Skerne. Sadberge has a population of around 676 residents and predominantly features detached housing.
Sadberge and Durham: AdBlue drains across the area
Sadberge is a village, and our teams that cover it also work the places around it, Barmpton and Haughton le Skerne among them, across the DL postcode area. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting DL2 1.
The car remains where it is. Draining takes place right there, be it a drive, a street near Shrunken medieval village at Sadberge, or a lay-by towards Great Burdon Village Green. Assuming doesn't help behind Brick Train, on a boundary, or somewhere awkward to pin down; ring and check.
Sadberge motorists: the short version
Pour no AdBlue till you've read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere around Durham, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless — and so leave the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103.