AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Sherfin: Why It Occurs and How to Stop It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and your ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, carried out right where the car stands in Sherfin, is usually all it needs if found before the engine runs. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the page covers the why it happens and the how to prevent it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Many newer diesels on the roads round Sherfin and Lower Baxenden carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the layout on many cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in the boot instead. Topping up the diesel side at the pump happens constantly. Rarely filled, AdBlue usually goes in out of a bottle, tipped by a driver who must stop and think which filler to use. That gap is where the error lives.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs in Sherfin
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
On a drive off Accrington Bypass before work, or in the car park outside the pub in the village heading home: that's where the rushed top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low the vehicle warns you, and if it is empty, limp mode kicks in.
New-to-you motors come next, as well. Rentals, new cars and company vehicles put their fillers in new places, and habit reaches for the cap it 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 tip once it has started. Whether it occurs in Rising Bridge or the middle of Sherfin, it is the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Cribden Side or a forecourt around Sherfin, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- Many cars fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by your diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park at Accrington? Check with whoever drove the car last before you set off, not once the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
The day the light goes on, anywhere in Lancashire, follow this routine.
- Turn off once parked — level ground, motor off, and not rushed by The Close on the verge.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap works — after you have found your filler and read the cap.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where the two share a flap, make sure it's closed before lifting the bottle.
- Stop when your tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; until then, pour gently using its own spout.
- Before starting the car, shut the cap and check again that your diesel cap never opened off.
Discover at the second or third step that the bottle went into the wrong tank? That's where you stop. Never go on to step five.
Sherfin: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Short order, then. Top of it: the engine stays off. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch the vehicle on. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is drawn from.
On a forecourt — Shell, Texaco or any other — the attendants will normally help roll your car away, when you ask. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway around Sherfin.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. The next junction is the place to come off when you're on the M65, under 5 miles from Sherfin. Mileage counts — a short hop across Sherfin is a smaller job than heading under 25 miles towards Preston — so say roughly how far it went.
When our engineers arrive in Sherfin, what takes place?
Wherever your car has stopped, whether outside St John's Stonefold CofE Primary School, beside Baxenden Cricket Club or on your own drive, the van comes to it. Both the work and our quote rest on three replies — what liquid, which quantity, and whether it's run — so our engineers ask. No one sets off until you have heard our quote over the phone.
Next: draining, then a full flush of the whole system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. Filter flushed or, where it must be, swapped; fresh diesel in; and then a check of the vehicle. After that we fire it up and confirm it runs smoothly before we go.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour after our engineers arrive, as long as the motor has not run — and the pumps our engineers use are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet after dark beside a house. Your insurer will ask for the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Sherfin itself
Sherfin is a locality in Lancashire, situated on the riverside with a mix of terraced housing, and is approximately 246 metres above sea level. Sherfin lies near several other small places, including Rising Bridge, Acre, and Hud Hey, and is around 15 miles from the city of Preston. Sherfin is also relatively distant from London, at around 179 miles away, and has a small population of approximately 701 residents.
AdBlue drains around Sherfin and across Lancashire
Over BB postcodes, the vans covering Sherfin — a small village — work the surrounding places too, Hud Hey and Acre included. Fastest of all: give a BB5 2 postcode to our van.
No need to move the vehicle. Draining happens right there, be it a driveway, a road by Church of St John the Baptist, or a layby on the way to Worsley Park. Tricky to explain, like the back of St James? By a border? Checking beats assuming, so phone.
Sherfin motorists: the short version
Pour nothing till you have read the cap. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it wherever it is, wherever across Lancashire: switch the car off and phone 0333 366 0103.