How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Shadwell
Keep the motor and ignition off and call 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. A drain and a full flush, done right where your car sits around Shadwell, is usually all it needs if found before your engine runs. The remainder of this page covers why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't — useful if you're reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Many modern diesels on the roads about Shadwell and Bracken Park carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. The exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the gas to fresh them, from its own tank.
Each tank has its own filler. Some cars put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot more have the two side by side under one flap. Diesel goes in at each forecourt call-out, week in, week out. The AdBlue side is filled far less regularly, normally from a bottle, and usually by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. Mistakes happen in the gap between them.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place in Shadwell
It is hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a driveway off Main Street before work, or in the car park outside Red Lion Inn heading home: that is where the hurried top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low your car warns you, and once it is empty, limp mode kicks in.
Unfamiliar motors are next, too. Rentals, new vehicles and company vehicles place their fillers differently, and habit goes for the cap used on the old one.
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 settle it, in the middle of Shadwell or out in Slaid Hill.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a drive in Park Villas or a forecourt around Shadwell.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Trust the cap, not its position.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on many cars. Check for it.
- The handbook shows which it is when the filler is not next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at Cross Gates, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
When the light goes on, anywhere around West Yorkshire, follow this routine.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Avon Court.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Step five is off limits.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Shadwell already?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the engine. Leave the ignition off too, since on plenty of diesels it alone starts the pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is sucked from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
On a forecourt — BP, Euro Garages or any other — the attendants will usually help push the car away, if you ask. At home in Shadwell? Then the car stays put.
When the motor has been run already, stop somewhere safe and switch it off. On the A64(M), under 5 miles from Shadwell, that means the next exit. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Shadwell is smaller work than a trip of under 5 miles to Leeds, so say.
Our arrival in Shadwell, and what happens next
We come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Shadwell Primary School, close to Shadwell Recreation Centre or on your own drive. We ask what was put in, about how much, and if it's run, because the replies decide the work and the quote. No one sets off until you have heard the price by phone.
Your system is then rinsed thoroughly, once that tank is emptied. Much more than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: the crystals build up, certain metals corrode, and nothing washes away unaided, no matter how long it is left. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Then our technicians fire it up and make sure it runs correctly before we go.
Using pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your motor has not run take about half an hour after our technicians arrive. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It's worth checking your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Shadwell, briefly
Shadwell is a small village in West Yorkshire, situated approximately 4.6 miles from Leeds and 171.9 miles from London. Shadwell sits at an elevation of 142 metres, surrounded by nearby places such as Slaid Hill, Wellington Hill, and Wike. Shadwell has a population of around 641 people and predominantly features detached housing.
Shadwell and West Yorkshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Shadwell is a rural village, and the vans that cover it also work the places around it, Wellington Hill and Wike among them, across the LS postcode area. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting LS17 8.
The vehicle remains where it is. Anywhere it sits — beside Shadwell Independent Library, on a lay-by en route to Shadwell Cricket Club, at home — that is where it is drained. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of St Paul's.
In short, for Shadwell people
Read the cap before you pour. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave the car off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it waits, anywhere across West Yorkshire.