AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Scotland Gate: Why It Happens and How to Avoid It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and your ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, carried out right where your car stands in Scotland Gate, is normally what it takes if caught before your motor runs. Here in advance? Then what follows explains why it happens and how to prevent it ever happening.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Many modern diesels around Bomarsund, as well as Scotland Gate, carry on two fluids; your motor takes just the diesel. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has one filler of its own. Many of vehicles have a single flap for both, whereas some put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, the diesel side is topped up constantly. Seldom filled, AdBlue normally goes in out of a bottle, poured by someone who has to stop and think which filler to use. It is in that gap that the slip lives.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs in Scotland Gate
It is rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the car, and running out means limp mode — so a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Nursery Way, or outside The Travellers Rest on the way home after work.
The old car's filler is where your hand goes — but a rental car, a new motor or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That's a second factor: a strange car.
No part stops the pour once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it takes place in Choppington or the middle of Scotland Gate, it's the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Check these before pouring, at a forecourt in Scotland Gate or a drive out in North Choppington. A few seconds, that's all.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Trust the cap, not its position.
- On many vehicles, size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside the fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Check for it.
- Cannot see it next to the diesel filler? In that case look beneath the bonnet or in your boot — the owner's manual will say where.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park at Bedlington? Check with whoever drove it last before you set off, rather than when the light goes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
The day the light goes on, wherever in Northumberland, follow this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Acre Drive, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park and switch off first.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" out loud while unscrewing it. It sounds silly. It works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the vehicle on.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Only then, start the car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Step five stays out.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Scotland Gate?
Don't start the engine: that is where the short order of things begins. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch the vehicle on. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is drawn from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
At a forecourt — JET, Shell or another — the staff will usually help push the vehicle clear, if you ask. Your own driveway around Scotland Gate is where it stays.
Already run? Pull over once it's safe, then turn off. Leave the A167(M) — under 15 miles out of Scotland Gate — at the next junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Newcastle upon Tyne, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Scotland Gate.
Scotland Gate: what happens when our engineers arrive
Our van comes to the car anywhere it stopped — your own driveway, beside Scotland Gate War Memorial, or outside Choppington Primary School. The replies determine the work and the quote, and so our engineers ask what went in, about how much, and whether it's run. During the phone call itself, you are told our quote — ahead of dispatch.
Next: draining, then a full flush of the whole 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. Filter cleaned or, if it must be, swapped; fresh diesel in; then a test of your car. The engine is started next and tested to be sure it runs properly, all before our engineers go.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour once our engineers arrive, provided the engine hasn't run — and the pumps we use are fine on a live forecourt and quiet after dark outside a house. Your insurer will ask for an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours once the job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. While we travel, take a look at your policy; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Scotland Gate
Scotland Gate is a locality in Northumberland, situated inland at an elevation of 26 metres, approximately 12 miles north of Newcastle upon Tyne. Scotland Gate is characterized by its semi-detached housing stock, reflecting the typical residential development patterns of the region. Scotland Gate is close to nearby places such as Choppington, Guide Post, and Sheepwash, and is about 259 miles north of London.
AdBlue drains across Northumberland, Scotland Gate included
Scotland Gate is a small village, and the teams that cover it also work the places near it, Guide Post and Sheepwash among them, across the NE postcode area. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting NE62 5.
Moving the vehicle is not necessary. We drain it where it is — a side street close to Choppington Social & Welfare Centre, a lay-by on the way to Cleasewell Hill Park, a driveway. Assuming won't help at the back of St. Paul the Apostle, on a border, or anywhere awkward to pin down; phone and ask.
Scotland Gate drivers: the short version
Read the cap before you tip. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere in Northumberland, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — and so leave the car off and call 0333 366 0103.