How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Scholar Green
Stop here a minute if the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then phone 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, done right where your car stands around Scholar Green, is normally all it takes if found before the engine runs. Not happened yet? Below, the rest of the page covers the reasons it occurs and the ways to avoid it altogether.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Many newer diesels around Church Lawton, like those in Scholar Green, carry on two liquids; the motor takes just your diesel. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust stream to clean it.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, side by side: that's the arrangement on a lot of motors. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in your boot instead. Filling your diesel side at the pump goes on constantly. Far less frequently, the AdBlue side is topped up — normally from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. The mistake grows in that gap between them.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place around Scholar Green
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
Haste follows from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a drive off Church Lane, or on the way home in the car park outside Travellers Rest.
Next, your hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old car — since a rental car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not.
Nothing 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. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Scholar Green or out in The Bank.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Lawton-gate or a forecourt in Scholar Green, check these. They take a few seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually is not. Read it instead of going by position.
- Plenty of vehicles fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Lift the filler flap and look for a label — many cars mark which goes in each filler right there.
- The handbook. If the 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 Kidsgrove? Ask whoever drove the vehicle last before you set off, rather than once the light goes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
Anywhere around Cheshire the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Cinderhill Lane.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, yes, but it works.
- The diesel cap stays on. When the two share a flap, make sure 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 again — confirm your diesel cap remained closed throughout. Only then, start the car.
Find at stage two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? Then stop just there. Never go on to stage five.
Scholar Green: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Don't start the engine: that is where the short order of things starts. Leave the ignition off too, because on plenty of diesels it alone runs your fuel pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is sucked from — so do not top up with diesel to thin it.
The staff at Tesco, Lawton Service Station or any forecourt will usually lend a hand pushing the car away when you ask. On your own drive around Scholar Green? Then the car remains where it is.
Already run? Stop when it is safe, then turn off. Leave the M6 — under 5 miles out of Scholar Green — at the first junction. A short hop across Scholar Green is a smaller job than a run towards Stoke-on-Trent, under 10 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
When our technicians turn up around Scholar Green, what happens?
By Scholar Green Primary School, near All Saints Old Rode or on your own drive: wherever your car has stopped, we come to it. Which liquid was put in, the amount, and if it ran: our engineers ask since those replies set both work and quote. Nobody sets off before you've heard our price over the phone.
Then your tank is cleared and the fuel system rinsed thoroughly. 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. A test is at the end: before that, fresh diesel is added, and the filter is cleaned or replaced as needed. Before we leave, our engineers fire it up and check that it is running properly.
Unstarted vehicles usually need a half-hour job from arrival. The kit is fine on a live filling station, and quiet enough for a residential street late at night. No money upfront; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Scholar Green itself
Scholar Green is a village in Cheshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 117 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Scholar Green lies near the cities of Stoke-on-Trent and Manchester, and is close to nearby places such as The Bank, Red Bull, and Hardings Wood. Scholar Green has a population of approximately 1072 residents, and is located about 142.5 miles northwest of London. Scholar Green is characterized by its rural setting and residential community.
AdBlue drains about Scholar Green, and Cheshire beyond
Being a village, Scholar Green has the same vans as nearby areas — Red Bull, Hardings Wood — right through ST postcodes and the wider area around them. A postcode starting ST7 3 gets our van to you fastest.
No need to move your car. Draining happens on the spot, be it a driveway, a street by Rode Hall and Gardens, or a lay-by towards Flee Crows Plantation. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Rode Hall, ring and ask instead of assuming.
For Scholar Green motorists, the short version
First, the cap; then, the pour. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will empty it wherever it is, anywhere across Cheshire: switch the car off then phone 0333 366 0103.