Sharston: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case set this page down a moment, leave the ignition and engine off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before your motor runs, it is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Sharston. The rest of this page covers why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't — handy if you're reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Not one fluid but two: that's how many modern diesels near Sharston and Gatley carry, with diesel feeding your motor. The exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the fumes to fresh it, from a separate tank.
There is a filler for each tank. Other motors keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty more place both side by side behind one flap. The diesel side is fuelled at the pump all the time. Far less often, the AdBlue side gets topped up — mostly from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. It's in that gap that the slip lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Sharston: how it takes place
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
On a drive off Finchwood Road before work, or in the car park outside The Prince of Wales on the way home: that's where the rushed top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low the car warns you, and if it is gone, limp mode kicks in.
Then the vehicle is strange. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand reaches for the cap it would have 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, so nothing stops the pour once it has started. Benchill or the middle of Sharston: it is the same few seconds either way.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Whether a Sharston forecourt or a drive out in Northenden, spend a few seconds on these before anything is poured in.
- Position misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue ones are often blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally do not.
- The size. On plenty of motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Lift the filler flap and check for a label — plenty of motors show which goes in which inlet just there.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by the diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Gatley, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
For the day the light comes on — anywhere it is across Greater Manchester — a routine to follow.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Woodhouse Lane.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you've located the filler and read the cap.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where the two share a flap, confirm it's shut before the bottle comes up.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or 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.
Find at stage two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? Then stop just there. Stage five is out.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Sharston?
The short order of things, starting with no starting the motor. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch the car on. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is drawn from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
The staff at BP, another forecourt nearby or any forecourt will usually lend a hand pushing the car clear when asked. On your own drive around Sharston? So the car remains where it is.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. On the M56, under a mile from Sharston, that means the next exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Manchester, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Sharston.
Our arrival in Sharston, and what takes place next
Our van comes to the vehicle wherever it stopped — your own drive, near Menorah Synagogue, or by Ss John Fisher and Thomas More Catholic Primary School. We ask what got in, about how much, and whether it has run, since the replies determine this work and the price. On the call itself, you are told our price — before anything else.
Next: draining, then a full flush of the entire system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and none of it clears away unaided. That is why it counts more. Testing is at the end: before that, clean diesel goes in, and the fuel filter is flushed or replaced as needed. After that our engineers start the engine and confirm it runs properly before we leave.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour after we get there, provided the engine has not run — and the pumps our engineers use are fine on a live forecourt yet quiet after dark beside a house. Your insurer usually wants the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both once this job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Sharston, briefly
Sharston is a suburban area in Greater Manchester, situated approximately 6 miles south of Manchester city centre. Sharston sits at an elevation of 47 metres, within the wider Wythenshawe area, and is surrounded by nearby places such as Benchill and Peel Hall. Sharston has a population of around 8649 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Sharston is located inland, about 158 miles northwest of London.
AdBlue drains around Sharston and across Greater Manchester
Sharston is a residential suburb, and our vans that cover it also work the places around it, Peel Hall and Wythenshawe among them, across the M postcode area. Fastest of all: quote a M22 4 postcode for the van.
There's no need to shift the car. Draining happens right there, whether a drive, a street by St Luke, or a layby on the way to Hollyhedge Park. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Baxter Park Bowling Club, ring and ask rather than guessing.
The short version for Sharston people
Before you tip, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere around Greater Manchester, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless — and so leave the car off then ring 0333 366 0103.