How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Shirecliffe
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case put this page aside a moment, keep your ignition and motor off, and ring 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, done just where your car stands around Shirecliffe, is normally what it takes if caught before the motor runs. Not happened yet? Below, the rest of the page covers the why it takes place and the how to prevent it for good.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Diesel goes to the engine — but plenty of newer diesels driven around Shirecliffe and Upper Crabtree carry a second fluid as well. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There's a filler for every tank. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Filling your diesel side at the pump happens constantly. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less commonly. The slip lives in that gap.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Shirecliffe: how it occurs
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
Hurry follows from the warning. The car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a driveway off Musgrave Place, or heading home in the car park at Devonshire Arms.
Then the vehicle is strange. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand hits 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, and so nothing stops the pour once it has started. Longley Estate or the middle of Shirecliffe: it is the same few seconds in both.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Be it a Shirecliffe forecourt or a drive out in Southey Green, take a couple of seconds over these before anything is poured in.
- Read the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue caps are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally aren't.
- Plenty of vehicles give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of cars say there which fuel goes where.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler sits if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before knows. Ask when you pick up a hire car or company car — from Sheffield's car park, perhaps — not once the light appears.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in South Yorkshire that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Miles Road, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park then switch off properly.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave it on.
- Finish when your tank fills or the bottle is empty; until then, pour slowly through its own spout.
- Only after that, start the car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Find at the second or third step that AdBlue went into the diesel tank? That is where you stop. Never carry on to stage five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Shirecliffe?
Do not start your motor: that's how the short order of things starts. Leave the ignition off as well, because on plenty of diesels it alone runs the pump. Thinning it with extra diesel fails, since AdBlue settles to the bottom rather than blending — and that is where your fuel is sucked from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it's the Texaco or the Morrisons, ask the attendants to help push your car away from the petrol pump. At home around Shirecliffe? Then the vehicle remains put.
Already started? Stop once it's sensible, then turn off. The next exit means the place to leave when you're on the M1, under 3 miles from Shirecliffe. About how far did it go? Crossing Shirecliffe is smaller a job than a run of under 3 miles to Sheffield, so say.
Shirecliffe: what happens when we arrive
Our technicians come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Watercliffe Meadow Community Primary School, near Shirecliffe Community Centre or on your own driveway. Both the work and our price rest on three answers — what fluid, which amount, and if it has run — so our engineers ask. That quote is given over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
Next: draining, then a full flush of the whole system. 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. Testing is at the end: before that, clean diesel goes in, and your filter is cleaned or changed as needed. Before we go, our engineers start it and confirm that it's running properly.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour once our technicians get there, as long as the motor hasn't run — and the pumps our technicians use are fine on a live forecourt yet quiet after dark beside a house. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork an insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. It's worth checking your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Shirecliffe
Shirecliffe is a suburban area located on the northern edge of Sheffield, sitting at an elevation of 157 metres in a generally flat to gently sloping landscape. Shirecliffe is characterized by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock, with nearby open spaces such as Parkwood Springs. Shirecliffe is close to other residential areas, including Longley Estate and Fir Vale, and is situated approximately 1.8 miles from Sheffield city centre.
Shirecliffe and South Yorkshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Being a residential suburb, Shirecliffe has the same vans as nearby places — Fir Vale, Parkwood Springs — all the way across S postcodes and the wider area around them. Give a postcode beginning S5 8, and our van arrives fastest.
There's no need to move the vehicle. Draining takes place right there, whether a driveway, a street by SUFC Academy, or a layby towards Busk Meadow Park. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Norwood and Bishopsholme Community Centre, ring and ask rather than assuming.
The short version for Shirecliffe drivers
Before you tip, read the cap. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will empty it wherever it is, anywhere around South Yorkshire: switch the car off then call 0333 366 0103.