Shotton: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Leave your motor and ignition off and ring 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 the vehicle sits in Shotton, is usually what it takes if found before your motor runs. Reading before the event? Then the rest covers why it comes about and what to prevent it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
No single fluid but two: that's how plenty of modern diesels near Shotton and Eden Vale carry, with diesel for the motor. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, and there a spray cleans the gas.
Each tank has a filler of its own. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in on each filling station visit, again and again. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less commonly. That gap is where the mistake lives.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank happen around Shotton?
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Durham Way before work, or in the car park at Moorcock on the way home.
Next, your hand goes for the cap it knew on the old motor — because a rental car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not.
No part stops the tip after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it takes place in Castle Eden or the middle of Shotton, it is the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Whether a Shotton forecourt or a drive out in Wingate, spend a few seconds on these before any goes in.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- Cannot find it next to the diesel inlet? Then look below the bonnet or inside your boot — the handbook says where.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Horden.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
When the light goes on, wherever around Durham, follow this routine.
- Turn off after you park — flat ground, engine off, and never rushed by Passfield Way on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- The two behind a single flap? So make sure the lid on your diesel side is still closed before lifting the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before you start your car, shut the cap and look a second time that the diesel cap was never came off.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Never go on to stage five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Shotton?
Brief order, then. Top of that: your motor stays off. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch the car on. Filling up with diesel will not weaken it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the base of that tank, right where the fuel is drawn from.
The staff at Shell, Asda or another forecourt will usually help pushing the car clear when asked. If you are on your own driveway in Shotton, leave the vehicle where it is.
Already run? Pull over once it is sensible, then switch off. The next exit means the place to come off when you are on the A1(M), under 10 miles from Shotton. Mileage counts — a quick hop across Shotton is a smaller job than heading under 10 miles to Durham — so say about how far it went.
Shotton: what occurs when our engineers turn up
Our van comes to the car wherever it stopped — your own driveway, near Apollo Pavilion, or outside Shotton Hall Primary School. Which liquid went in, the quantity, and if it ran: our engineers ask since the replies decide both work and price. You get that price by phone, before anyone sets off.
Emptying your tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the system. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and neither washes away unaided. Hence it matters more. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. The motor is fired up next and tested to confirm it runs smoothly, all before we leave.
With pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your engine hasn't run take roughly 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. While we travel, take a look at your insurance documents; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Shotton itself
Shotton is a suburban area in County Durham, situated near the coast and approximately 9 miles from the city of Durham. Shotton has a population of around 3832 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Shotton sits at an elevation of 130 metres, overlooking the surrounding countryside. Shotton is located near other places such as Castle Eden and Peterlee, and is about 229 miles north of London.
Shotton and Durham: AdBlue drains across the area
Being a residential suburb, Shotton has the same vans as surrounding places — Peterlee, Shotton Colliery — all the way across SR postcodes and the surrounding area around them. A postcode starting SR8 2 gets our van to you fastest.
Your car remains where it is. The drain takes place on the spot, be it a drive, a street near Pavilion community sports and leisure centre, or a layby on the way to Bracken Hill Wood Local Nature Reserve. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Our Lady of the Rosary RC Church.
In short, for Shotton motorists
Before you tip, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere in Durham, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless — so leave the vehicle off and ring 0333 366 0103.