Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Sedgefield: Why It Happens
Keep your motor and ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Usually, if your motor has not turned, it's drained and fully purged where your car is in Sedgefield. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Not one liquid but two: that is how many modern diesels near Sedgefield and Bishop Middleham run, with diesel feeding the engine. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it.
Different tanks, separate fillers. Other cars put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty more have the two side by side under one flap. At the pump, your diesel side gets filled all the time. Rarely filled, AdBlue usually goes in from a bottle, tipped by a driver who must stop and think what filler it needs. The mistake lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place around Sedgefield
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from your car, and letting it run out leads to limp mode — so a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Rectory Row, or outside The Hardwick Arms on the way home that evening.
Next, your hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old vehicle — because a rental car, a new car or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the pour once it has started. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Sedgefield or out in Butterwick.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Whether a Sedgefield forecourt or a drive out in Bradbury, spend a few seconds on these before any is poured in.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Go by the cap, not its position.
- On plenty of motors, size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of cars say there which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler sits if it is not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Newton Aycliffe, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
Anywhere around Durham the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of The Square.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" aloud while unscrewing it. It seems daft. It does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, then look again — confirm your diesel cap remained closed the whole time. After that, start the vehicle.
Spot at step two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? So stop right there. Don't carry on to step five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Sedgefield already?
Don't start your motor: that is how the short order of things begins. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch it on. Diluting it with extra diesel fails, since AdBlue sinks to the base instead of blending — and that's where the fuel is drawn from.
Ask the staff to help push the car away from the petrol pump if you are at a forecourt — the North End Garage, the Esso or somewhere else. At home around Sedgefield? Then the car remains where it is.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Sedgefield sits under 3 miles from the A1(M); there, use the first exit. A short hop across Sedgefield is a smaller job than a run towards Durham, under 15 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
When our engineers turn up in Sedgefield, what takes place?
By Sedgefield Primary School, close to St. John Fisher or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our engineers come to it. The answers settle this work and the quote, and so our engineers ask what went in, about how much, and whether it has run. Nobody heads out before you have heard the quote by phone.
Then the tank is cleared and the system cleaned thoroughly. With AdBlue that matters 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, fresh diesel goes in, and the fuel filter is cleaned or replaced if necessary. Before we go, we start the engine and check that it is running correctly.
Unrun cars mostly need a half-hour job from arrival. The kit is safe on a live forecourt, and quiet enough for a residential street late at night. Your insurer usually wants an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both once the job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. While we travel, take a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Sedgefield and where it is
Sedgefield is a town in County Durham, situated inland at an elevation of around 110 metres, approximately 10 miles south of Durham city. Sedgefield lies near several smaller settlements, including Butterwick, Mordon, and Fishburn, and is characterised by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock. Sedgefield is a relatively small town, with a population of around 4604 people, and is located about 224 miles north of London.
Sedgefield and Durham: AdBlue drains across the area
Over TS postcodes, our vans that cover Sedgefield — a town — work the surrounding places too, Fishburn and Mordon among them. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting TS21 2.
The vehicle remains put. Wherever it sits — near Sedgefield War Memorial, on a layby heading to Hardwick Park, at home — that is where it is cleared. Awkward to explain, like the back of Squash Club? By a border? Asking beats assuming, so ring.
In short, for Sedgefield people
Pour no AdBlue till you have read the cap. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it wherever it stands, wherever across Durham: keep it off and call 0333 366 0103.