Why It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Seathorne
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then set this page aside for now, keep the ignition and engine off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Seathorne. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Plenty of modern diesels on the roads about Seathorne and Addlethorpe carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust gas and cleans it.
Each tank comes with a filler of its own. Under one flap, side by side: that is the arrangement on many cars. On others, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. Diesel gets filled at each forecourt visit, week in, week out. Seldom filled, AdBlue usually goes in out of a bottle, tipped by someone who must stop and think which filler to use. Mistakes happen in that gap between the two.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Seathorne: how it takes place
Carelessness seldom causes it. What does is three things coming up together.
On a drive off Seathorne Crescent before work, or in the car park at Garden City on the way home: that's where the rushed top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low the car warns you, and if it is empty, limp mode kicks in.
The old car's cap is where your hand reaches — yet a rental car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That is the second factor: a strange vehicle.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the tip after it has started. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Seathorne or out in Winthorpe.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Be it a Seathorne forecourt or a driveway over in Seacroft, take a couple of seconds on these before anything is poured in.
- Check the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally are not.
- On plenty of cars, size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Open the filler flap and look for a label — plenty of vehicles show which goes in which filler just there.
- Can't find it beside your diesel filler? Then check below the bonnet or inside your boot — the owner's manual will say where.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Skegness? Ask the person who drove the car last before you set off, rather than when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Lincolnshire that is.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Roman Bank.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, perhaps, but it works.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Finish when the tank fills or the bottle runs dry; until then, tip gently through its built-in spout.
- Before starting the car, close the cap and check again that the diesel cap never opened off.
Find during the second or third stage that the bottle went into the diesel filler? That is where you stop. Never carry on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Seathorne?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your engine. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels the moment the ignition goes on — so keep it off. Filling up with diesel will not dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the bottom of your tank, right where the fuel is drawn from.
Ask the staff to help roll your car clear of the petrol pump if you're at a forecourt — the Asda, the Valero or anywhere else. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive in Seathorne.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the engine has already run. Leave the M180 — under 50 miles out of Seathorne — at the next junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Lincoln, under 50 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Seathorne.
Our arrival in Seathorne, and what takes place next
By Seathorne Primary Academy, near Winthorpe Community Cente or on your own driveway: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our engineers come to it. The replies settle the work and our price, so our technicians ask what went in, about how much, and if it has run. No one sets off before you've heard the price over the phone.
Then the tank is drained and the fuel system flushed thoroughly. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own. Testing comes at the end: before that, clean diesel goes in, and the fuel filter is flushed or changed if necessary. Before leaving, our engineers fire it up and make sure that it's running correctly.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour once our technicians get there, provided the motor has not run — and the pumps our technicians use are fine on a live forecourt and quiet at night beside a house. Your insurer usually wants the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours once the job is done. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Seathorne itself
Seathorne is a small coastal suburban area in Lincolnshire, situated near the popular seaside resorts of Skegness and Ingoldmells. Seathorne lies at a low elevation of around 4 metres, close to the sandy beaches and coastal amenities of the East Midlands coastline. Seathorne has a mix of housing types, but detached homes are particularly prevalent in the area. Seathorne is located approximately 36.9 miles from the city of Lincoln and 116.5 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Lincolnshire, Seathorne included
Seathorne is a residential suburb, and our vans that cover it also work the places around it, Skegness and Ingoldmells among them, across the PE postcode area. Give a postcode that starts PE25 1, and the van gets there fastest.
The vehicle stays put. A drive, a lay-by on the way to North Shore Golf Course, a side street close to Skegness Water Leisure Park: our technicians drain the vehicle where it is. Awkward to pin down, like the back of St. Mary? By a county line? Asking beats guessing, so phone.
The short version for Seathorne drivers
Always, the cap; then, the tip. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Leave it switched off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, throughout Lincolnshire.