Scarcroft: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and the ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. In Scarcroft, finding it before the motor turns usually means draining and a thorough flush on the spot. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the page covers the why it takes place and the ways to prevent it altogether.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Diesel goes to the engine — yet plenty of current diesels seen around Scarcroft and Thorner carry a second fluid as well. Your exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the fumes to fresh it, from its own tank.
There's a filler for every tank. Some cars keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty more have both side by side behind one flap. Diesel gets filled at every forecourt visit, again and again. The AdBlue side is filled far less frequently, normally from a bottle, and normally by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. It is in the gap that the slip happens.
Scarcroft: how AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out altogether, your vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Syke Lane before work, or in the car park at The New Inn on the way home.
Then, your hand goes for the cap it knew on the old car — since a rental car, a new motor or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
Lastly, the spout goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in just as easily, and after the pour starts, no part halts it. It's a few seconds, whether in Bracken Park or right in the centre of Scarcroft.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A few seconds is all these take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a driveway in East Keswick or a forecourt in Scarcroft.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Trust the cap, not its position.
- On plenty of cars, size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Look inside your fuel flap: plenty of motors carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by the diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park at Cross Gates? Ask whoever drove the car last before leaving, rather than when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
When the light goes on, wherever in West Yorkshire, follow this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Wetherby Road, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park then switch off properly.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, yes, but it works.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where both share a flap, make sure it's shut before lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Skip stage five altogether.
Scarcroft: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Brief list, then. First: your engine remains unstarted. The fuel pump runs on many diesels as soon as the ignition goes on — and so leave it off. Filling up with diesel will not thin it: instead, AdBlue drops to the bottom of that tank, right where fuel is taken from.
The staff at BP, Euro Garages or any forecourt will usually lend a hand pushing your car away if you ask. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway in Scarcroft.
When your motor has run by now, pull over safely and switch it off. Scarcroft lies under 5 miles from the A1(M); there, use the first junction. A short hop across Scarcroft is a smaller job than a run towards Leeds, under 10 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
What happens when we get there around Scarcroft
Our engineers come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Bardsey Primary Academy, close to Scarcroft Village Hall or on your own drive. Our engineers ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether it has run, since those replies decide the work and the quote. That price comes over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
The system is then cleaned thoroughly, once that tank is cleared. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and none of that clears out unaided. That is why it counts more. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Your engine is fired up next and checked to make sure it runs smoothly, all before our engineers go.
Using pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the motor hasn't run take about half an hour once our technicians arrive. Nothing upfront; you settle up that day. At the end, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. While we travel, take a look at your policy; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Scarcroft
Scarcroft is a village in West Yorkshire, situated on the banks of a river at an elevation of around 95 metres. Scarcroft lies close to the city of Leeds, approximately 6.5 miles away, and is near other local places such as Bracken Park and Bardsey. Scarcroft has a population of around 738 people and is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock.
AdBlue drains around Scarcroft, and West Yorkshire beyond
Scarcroft is a village, and the vans that cover it also work the towns near it, Bardsey and East Rigton among them, across the LS postcode area. A postcode starting LS14 3 gets our van to you fastest.
There's no need to shift your car. Wherever it sits — beside Pompocali, on a layby en route to Scarcroft Plantations, at home — that is where it gets cleared. Tricky to explain, like the back of The Parish Church of All Hallows? Close to a border? Checking is better than guessing, and so phone.
For Scarcroft drivers, the short version
Pour no AdBlue till you've read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere in West Yorkshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — so leave the vehicle off then call 0333 366 0103.