Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Sapcote: Why It Occurs
Leave the motor and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. A drain and a full flush, done right where your car sits in Sapcote, is usually what it takes if found before your engine runs. Here in advance? Then what follows explains how it comes about and what to prevent it ever happening.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Many newer diesels around Potters Marston, as well as Sapcote, run on two fluids; the motor takes just your diesel. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There is a filler for each tank. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the arrangement on many motors. On others, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less often, usually from a bottle, and usually by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. Mistakes happen in that gap between the two.
Sapcote: how AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs
Carelessness rarely causes it. What does is three things lining up together.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Stanton Road before work, or in the car park at The Sapcote Club on the way home.
The old car's filler is where the hand goes — but a rental car, a new motor or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That is the second thing: a new motor.
Third, the spout goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in just as easily, and once the pour starts, no part halts it. Stoney Stanton or the middle of Sapcote: it takes the same few seconds in both.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
A couple of seconds is all these take — so check them before you pour anything, on a drive in Sutton in the Elms or a forecourt around Sapcote.
- Position misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually don't.
- Many vehicles give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler is if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at Hinckley, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Leicestershire that is.
- Stop somewhere level, motor off, with time in hand — never hurried on the side of Leicester Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- The two under one flap? Then confirm the cap on your diesel filler is still closed ahead of raising the bottle.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start the car: close the cap, check again, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Never carry on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Sapcote already?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the engine. The fuel pump runs on many diesels the moment your ignition goes on — so leave it off. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — Shell, D Tallis or another — the staff will normally help roll the vehicle away, when you ask. Your own driveway in Sapcote is where it should stay.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the motor has already run. On the M69, under 3 miles from Sapcote, that means the next junction. A short hop across Sapcote is a smaller job than a run towards Leicester, under 10 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
What happens when we turn up around Sapcote
The van reaches the vehicle wherever it has come to rest — your own driveway, near Sapcote Castle, or outside All Saints Church of England Primary School, Sapcote. Our engineers ask what was put in, about how much, and whether it has run, since the answers decide the work and our price. You get that quote by phone, before anybody sets off.
Draining the tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the system. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own. After the fuel filter has been cleaned — or replaced, if required — fresh diesel is added, and then your car is tested. Before leaving, we start it and confirm that it's running properly.
Unrun cars usually need a half-hour visit from the moment we arrive. The equipment is fine on a busy forecourt, and hushed enough for a residential street after dark. Your insurer usually wants an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. Misfuelling cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Sapcote itself
Sapcote is a village in Leicestershire, situated inland at an elevation of around 98 metres, approximately 9 miles from Leicester and 86 miles from London. Sapcote is surrounded by nearby villages such as Stoney Stanton, Sharnford, and Aston Flamville, and is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock. Sapcote has a population of around 2533 residents, making it a small but established community in the East Midlands region.
AdBlue drains around Sapcote and across Leicestershire
Being a rural village, Sapcote has the same vans as nearby places — Sharnford, Aston Flamville — right through LE postcodes and the wider area beyond. Fastest of all: give a LE9 4 postcode to our van.
The vehicle remains put. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near Sapcote Pavilion, a lay-by on the way to Stoney Stanton Parish Meadow, a drive. Tricky to explain, like the back of Sapcote Library? Close to a county line? Checking beats assuming, so ring.
The short version for Sapcote people
First, the cap; then, the pour. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Leave the car switched off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, across Leicestershire.