AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Salterforth: Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and the ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. In Salterforth, finding it before your engine turns usually means draining and a full flush where it stands. Not happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page explains the reasons it happens and the ways to prevent it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of modern diesels on the roads about Salterforth and Long Ing carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Different tanks, different fillers. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is topped up at the petrol pump all the time. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less commonly. It is in the gap that the error happens.
Salterforth: how AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
On a driveway off Earby Road before work, or in the car park outside Anchor Inn heading home: that is where the hurried top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low the car warns you, and if it's empty, limp mode kicks in.
Then the car is strange. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Lastly, the spout fits: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in as readily, and after the pour begins, no part stops it. Park Close or the heart of Salterforth: it is the same few seconds in both.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Be it a Salterforth forecourt or a driveway over in Town Head, spend a few seconds on these before any is poured in.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally do not.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many motors say there which fuel goes where.
- Cannot find it next to the diesel inlet? Then look beneath the bonnet or inside the boot — the owner's manual says which.
- Check with 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 Colne.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
Wherever in Lancashire the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Stop somewhere level, engine off, with time in hand — not rushing on the side of Salterforth Lane.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave it on.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, and check once more — confirm your diesel filler stayed shut the whole time. Only then, start the vehicle.
Spot at step two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? So stop right there. Skip stage five altogether.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Salterforth already?
Do not start your engine: that is where the short order of things starts. The fuel pump starts on many diesels as soon as the ignition goes 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 don't top up with diesel to thin it.
The attendants at Shell, Total or another forecourt will usually lend a hand pushing the vehicle away if you ask. If you are on your own driveway around Salterforth, leave it where it is.
When your motor has been run by now, stop safely and turn the car off. The next junction is where to come off if you are on the M65, under 5 miles from Salterforth. Distance counts — a quick hop across Salterforth makes a smaller job than heading under 25 miles towards Bradford — so say roughly how far it went.
Our arrival in Salterforth, and what takes place next
The van comes to the car wherever it stopped — your own drive, near Salterforth Baptist Church, or by Salterforth Primary School. Both the work and our price rest on three answers — what liquid, what quantity, and whether it's run — so our technicians ask. You hear that price by phone, before anyone sets off.
The fuel system is then cleaned thoroughly, once that tank is drained. Much more than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: crystals form, some metals corrode, and none of that clears out on its own, no matter how long it sits. The filter flushed or, if it must be, swapped; fresh diesel in; then a check of the vehicle. Before leaving, we fire it up and check that it's running smoothly.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour once our technicians arrive, provided the motor has not run — and the pumps we use are fine on a busy forecourt yet quiet at night outside a house. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents an insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. It is worth checking your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Salterforth and where it is
Salterforth is a village in Lancashire, situated on the riverside in the North West of England, with a population of around 546 people. Salterforth has a mix of housing types, but detached homes are the most common, and the village is located near other small communities such as Park Close and North Holme. Salterforth sits at an elevation of 147 metres, close to the nearby settlements of Sough. Salterforth is approximately 186 miles from London and 19 miles from Bradford.
AdBlue drains in Salterforth and across Lancashire
North Holme and Sough are among the places around Salterforth, a village, that the same teams cover, throughout BB postcodes. Quote a postcode beginning BB18 5, and our van gets there fastest.
There's no need to shift the vehicle. Wherever it sits — beside Barlick Castle, in a layby heading to Letcliffe Country Park, on a drive — that's where it is drained. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Frog Carving, ring and ask rather than assuming.
For Salterforth motorists, the short version
Always, the cap; then, the tip. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere across Lancashire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway — and so leave the vehicle off then call 0333 366 0103.