AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Shaw Cross: How It Occurs and How to Stop It
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case set this page aside a moment, leave the ignition and engine off, then call 0333 366 0103. Caught before your motor runs, it is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Shaw Cross. The rest of this page explains why it occurs and how to ensure it does not — handy if you are reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of newer diesels around Ossett Street Side, like those in Shaw Cross, carry on two fluids; your engine takes just the diesel. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, and there a spray treats the gas.
Each tank has one filler of its own. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is topped up at the pump all the time. Rarely topped up, AdBlue normally goes in from a bottle, tipped by someone who has to stop and think which filler it needs. The mistake lives in that gap.
Shaw Cross: how AdBlue in the diesel tank happens
Carelessness seldom causes it. What does is three things lining up at once.
Hurry comes from the warning. The vehicle warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a driveway off Owl Lane, or heading home in the car park at The Huntsman.
The old car's filler is where the hand reaches — yet a hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That's the second factor: an unfamiliar vehicle.
No part stops the pour after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It's a few seconds, be it out in Chidswell or bang in the centre of Shaw Cross.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
A couple of seconds is all these take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a drive in Chickenley or a forecourt around Shaw Cross.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally is not. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- Many vehicles fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Look inside your fuel flap: many vehicles carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by your diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Batley, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
Anywhere in West Yorkshire the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Pull in somewhere level, engine off, with time in hand — never rushing on the side of Windsor Court.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft. It does the trick.
- The two behind a single flap? So make sure the lid on the diesel filler is still closed before raising the bottle.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start the car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Spot at step two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? So stop right there. Never carry on to step five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Shaw Cross already?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the motor. The fuel pump starts on many diesels as soon as the ignition goes on — and so leave it off. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
The attendants at Shell, JET or any forecourt will usually lend a hand to push your car clear when you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive in Shaw Cross.
Already run? Pull over once it's safe, then turn off. Come off the M1 — under 3 miles out of Shaw Cross — at the next junction. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Shaw Cross is less a job than a trip of under 5 miles to Wakefield, so say.
What happens when we turn up in Shaw Cross
Outside Shaw Cross Infant and Nursery School, close to Dewsbury Rams or on your own driveway: wherever the vehicle has stopped, we come to it. Our technicians ask what went in, about how much, and if it has run, since the replies determine this work and the quote. No one heads out until you have had our quote over the phone.
Then that tank is emptied and the system rinsed thoroughly. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own. Once the filter has been flushed — or replaced, if needed — fresh diesel is added, and then the car is tested. Before we leave, our engineers fire it up and check that it is running smoothly.
Using pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the engine has not run need about half an hour after our engineers arrive. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It's worth looking at your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Shaw Cross, briefly
Shaw Cross is a suburban area in West Yorkshire, situated approximately 4.4 miles from Wakefield and 163.7 miles from London. Shaw Cross has a population of around 3172 people and is characterised by semi-detached housing. Shaw Cross is located near other local places such as Chidswell, Gawthorpe, and Hanging Heaton, in the inland area of Yorkshire and the Humber. Shaw Cross sits at an elevation of 111 metres, in a gently rolling landscape.
Shaw Cross and West Yorkshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Being a residential suburb, Shaw Cross shares its vans nearby places — Gawthorpe, Hanging Heaton — right through WF postcodes and the surrounding area around them. Quote a postcode beginning WF12 7, and our van arrives fastest.
Shifting the car is not needed. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street near St Paul's Church, a lay-by on the way to Wakefield Road Recreation Ground, a drive. Tricky to explain, like the back of Salvation Army? Close to a county line? Asking beats guessing, and so phone.
Shaw Cross drivers: the short version
Read the cap before you pour. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it where it is, wherever in West Yorkshire: switch it off and phone 0333 366 0103.