Salesbury: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case put this page down for now, leave the ignition and motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. Normally, if your motor hasn't run, it's emptied and fully flushed where your car sits around Salesbury. Nothing happened yet? Below, the rest of the page covers the reasons it happens and the ways to avoid it altogether.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Plenty of modern diesels on the roads around Salesbury and Ramsgreave carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, where a spray cleans the fumes.
There's a filler for every tank. Many of vehicles share a single flap for both, while some move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled on each filling station call-out, again and again. Seldom filled, AdBlue normally goes in out of a bottle, tipped by a driver who must stop and think what cap it needs. That gap is where the error lives.
Salesbury: how AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
Haste comes from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a drive off Ryden Road, or on the way home in the car park outside Wilpshire Hotel.
New-to-you vehicles come second, too. Hire cars, new cars and company motors place their fillers differently, and the hand goes for the cap it used on the old one.
No part halts the pour once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Clayton-le-Dale or the middle of Salesbury: it is the same few seconds either way.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Whether a Salesbury forecourt or a drive over in Brownhill, take a couple of seconds over these before anything is poured in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally is not. Read it rather than going by position.
- The size. On many cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Check for it.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler is if it is not by the diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Ramsgreave & Wilpshire.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
On the day the light comes on — anywhere it is across Lancashire — a simple routine to use.
- Switch off once parked — flat ground, motor off, and never in a rush beside Saint Peters Close at the roadside.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap works — once you've found the filler and read it.
- The diesel cap remains on. When the two share a flap, make sure it's shut before lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the car, shut the cap and check a second time that the diesel cap was never came off.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Don't go on to stage five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Salesbury?
Short list, then. Top of it: your engine remains unstarted. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch it on. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is sucked from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it is the BP or the SPAR Pennine Service Station, ask the attendants to help push the vehicle clear of the pump. Your own drive in Salesbury is the place it should stay.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Salesbury lies under 5 miles from the M65; on it, take the next exit. About how far did it go? Hopping across Salesbury is less a job than a run of under 10 miles towards Preston, and so tell us.
Our arrival in Salesbury, and what takes place next
Wherever the vehicle came to rest, be it by Salesbury Church of England Primary School, beside Saint Peter or on your own drive, the van travels to it. Which fluid got in, the quantity, and if it ran: our technicians ask because the replies decide both work and price. No one heads out until you have heard our quote over the phone.
Then that tank is cleared and the fuel system rinsed thoroughly. Much more than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: crystals build up, certain metals are attacked, and none of that clears out unaided, however long it is left. Testing comes at the end: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and your filter is flushed or changed as needed. After that our engineers fire it up and confirm it runs properly before we go.
Unrun cars usually mean a half-hour visit from the moment we arrive. The kit is safe on a busy forecourt, and hushed enough for a driveway late at night. Your insurer usually wants the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both once this job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies — so use the wait to check yours.
About Salesbury, briefly
Salesbury is a suburban area in Lancashire, situated approximately 8.8 miles north of Preston and 186.3 miles northwest of London. Salesbury sits at an elevation of around 140 metres, amidst the rolling countryside of the North West region. Salesbury is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock and is located near other small communities such as Clayton-le-Dale and Wilpshire.
AdBlue drains around Salesbury, and Lancashire beyond
Wilpshire and Copster Green are among the places near Salesbury, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, throughout BB postcodes. Quickest of all: give a BB1 9 postcode for the van.
No need to shift the vehicle. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Salesbury Cricket Club, a side street near Holy Souls: we drain the vehicle where it stands. Assuming won't help at the back of Trinity Church, on a border, or anywhere awkward to pin down; phone and check.
For Salesbury motorists, the short version
Pour nothing till you've read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere in Lancashire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — and so leave the vehicle off and ring 0333 366 0103.