AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Sandbed: Why It Happens and How to Avoid It
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case set this page aside a moment, leave the ignition and motor off, then phone 0333 366 0103. In Sandbed, finding it before your motor turns normally leaves a drain and a thorough flush where it stands. The remainder of this page explains why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't — handy if you are reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Diesel goes to the motor — but plenty of current diesels driven around Sandbed and Hartshead Pike hold a second liquid too. The exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the gas to clean them, from a separate tank.
Different tanks, separate fillers. Some motors put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others have both side by side under one flap. At the pump, the diesel side gets filled all the time. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less commonly. That gap is where the mistake lives.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place around Sandbed
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Hurry follows from the warning. The car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a drive off Shire Croft, or heading home in the car park at The Billy Goat.
New-to-you motors are second, too. Rentals, new cars and company vehicles place their fillers differently, and the hand reaches for the cap used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the tip after it has started. It's seconds, be it out in Brook Bottom or right in the centre of Sandbed.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Quickwood or a forecourt around Sandbed, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on many vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many cars say there which fuel goes where.
- Can't find it beside your diesel filler? In that case check beneath the bonnet or inside your boot — the handbook says which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Mossley (Manchester), ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
Wherever in Greater Manchester the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Greaves Street, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park and switch off first.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" out loud as unscrewing it. It seems daft. It does the trick.
- The diesel cap remains on. When the two sit under a flap, confirm it is closed before the bottle comes up.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, and check once more — confirm the diesel cap stayed closed the whole time. Only then, start the vehicle.
Find at stage two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? Then stop right there. Skip step five entirely.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Sandbed?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with not starting the motor. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels as soon as the ignition goes on — so keep it off. Diluting it with more diesel won't work, because AdBlue sinks to the base rather than mixing — and that's where the fuel is sucked from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it's the Gulf or the Texaco, ask the staff to help roll the car away from the pump. Your own drive in Sandbed is where it should stay.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Come off the M60 — under 5 miles out of Sandbed — at the first exit. Distance matters — a quick hop across Sandbed makes a smaller job than driving under 10 miles towards Manchester — so say about how far it went.
What happens when our technicians turn up in Sandbed
Our technicians come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside St Joseph's RC Primary School, near George Lawton Hall or on your own driveway. Those replies settle this work and the price, so we ask what got in, roughly how much, and if it has run. No one sets off before you've heard the quote over the phone.
Then that tank is cleared and the system purged thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. A test is last: before that, clean diesel is added, and your filter is flushed or changed as needed. After that our engineers fire it up and make sure it runs smoothly before we go.
Using pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where the engine has not run need roughly half an hour once our engineers arrive. Nothing in advance; you settle up on the day. At the end, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is included in many insurance policies — so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Sandbed, briefly
Sandbed is a suburban area in Greater Manchester, situated on the riverside with nearby settlements including Brook Bottom and Mossley. Sandbed sits at an elevation of 215 metres, approximately 8.6 miles from Manchester, and features predominantly terraced housing. Sandbed is part of the larger North West region, with London around 160.8 miles to the south. Sandbed's population is approximately 4549 residents.
AdBlue drains about Sandbed, and Greater Manchester beyond
Being a residential suburb, Sandbed shares its vans surrounding places — Mossley, Mossley Brow — right across OL postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. Quickest of all: quote a OL5 0 postcode for our van.
The vehicle does not need to shift. Anywhere it stands — near St Joseph, in a lay-by en route to Mossley Park, on a drive — that's where it gets cleared. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Mossley Methodist Church, ring and ask rather than guessing.
The short version for Sandbed drivers
Read the cap before you pour. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave the car off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it waits, anywhere across Greater Manchester.