AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Scholes: Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It
Leave your engine and ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. In Scholes, finding it before the motor turns usually means draining and a full flush where it stands. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Many newer diesels on the roads round Scholes and Wyke Common carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, where spraying treats the gas.
Each tank has its own filler. On a lot of vehicles 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 filled at the petrol pump all the time. Rarely filled, AdBlue normally goes in from a bottle, tipped by a driver who has to stop and think what filler to use. That gap is where the error lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen around Scholes?
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
On a driveway off Westfield Lane before work, or in the car park outside Walkers Arms heading home: that is where the hurried top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it's empty, limp mode follows.
Then your car is strange. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spouted bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, once begun, carries on. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Scholes or out in New Popplewell.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Check these first, at a forecourt around Scholes or a drive over in Wyke. A few seconds, that's all.
- Read the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue caps are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally aren't.
- On many vehicles, the size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside your fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on many cars. Check for it.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by the diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Check as you pick up a rental or fleet car — at Low Moor's car park, say — rather than when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
For the day the warning appears — anywhere you are across West Yorkshire — a simple routine to follow.
- Not in a rush on the side of Scholes Lane, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park then switch off properly.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- Both behind one flap? Then confirm the lid on your diesel side stays shut before raising the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, then check once more — confirm the diesel cap stayed shut throughout. After that, start your car.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Never carry on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Scholes already?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the engine. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch the car on. Thinning it with more diesel won't work, since AdBlue sinks to the base instead of blending — and that's where the fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — Esso, Shell or another — the staff will normally help roll the vehicle away, when you ask. If you are on your own driveway in Scholes, leave the vehicle where it stands.
Where the motor has been run by now, pull over safely and switch the vehicle off. Scholes lies under a mile from the M62; on it, use the first junction. Mileage matters — a short hop across Scholes makes a smaller job than heading under 5 miles to Bradford — so say roughly how far it went.
What happens when our engineers arrive around Scholes
Outside Scholes Village Primary School, near St. James and St. Phillip Church or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, we come to it. Both the work and our price depend on three replies — which liquid, which quantity, and if it has run — so our engineers ask. No one sets off until you have had our quote over the phone.
Emptying that tank comes next, then a thorough flush of the system. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. Testing is last: before that, clean diesel is added, and the fuel filter is cleaned or changed if necessary. We do not go until it has been started and is running properly.
If the engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork your insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Misfuelling cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — so use the wait to check yours.
About Scholes and where it is
Scholes is a village in West Yorkshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 169 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Scholes lies approximately 4.2 miles from Bradford and is surrounded by nearby places such as New Popplewell and Lower Wyke. Scholes has a population of around 1892 residents and is located near Hartshead Moor Top. Scholes is positioned in a regional setting that is characteristic of the Yorkshire and the Humber area, with its rural landscape and proximity to urban centres.
Scholes and West Yorkshire: AdBlue drains across the area
As a village, Scholes has the same vans as surrounding places — Hartshead Moor Top, Lower Wyke — all the way across BD postcodes and the wider area around them. Fastest of all: quote a BD19 6 postcode for our van.
There's no need to shift the car. A drive, a lay-by on the way to St James and St Phillip Gardens, a side street close to Whitechapel Church: we drain the vehicle where it stands. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of St Luke's.
In short, for Scholes people
Always, the cap; after that, the pour. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will empty it where it stands, anywhere around West Yorkshire: keep it off and call 0333 366 0103.