Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Silverbridge
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and your ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103. A drain and a full flush, done right where the vehicle sits in Silverbridge, is normally all it needs when caught before the engine runs. Reading before the event? In that case what follows covers why it comes about and how to stop it ever happening.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Diesel feeds your engine — but many newer diesels seen about Silverbridge and Cullyhanna carry another liquid as well. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, where a spray treats the gas.
Separate tanks, different fillers. On a lot of motors 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 filled at the petrol pump all the time. Much less often, the AdBlue side gets topped up — mostly from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. The mistake lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank take place around Silverbridge?
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the vehicle, and running dry leads to limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Dunskey Street, or at the pub in the village on the way home after work.
Then, 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.
Nothing halts the pour once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it happens in Mullaghbawn or the middle of Silverbridge, it is the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
A couple of seconds is all these take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a drive in Forkill or a forecourt in Silverbridge.
- Read the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually are not.
- On many cars, the size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Lift the filler flap and look for a label — many cars show which belongs in which filler just there.
- The handbook says which it lives when your filler isn't next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park at the nearest station? Check with the person who drove it last before leaving, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
When the light comes on, anywhere around County Armagh, follow this routine.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of South Crescent.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, perhaps, but it works.
- Both behind one flap? So make sure the cap on the diesel side stays closed ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start your 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's already gone into the diesel side? Then stop just there. Don't go on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Silverbridge already?
The short order of things, beginning with no starting your engine. The fuel pump runs on many diesels the moment your ignition goes on — so leave it off. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
Ask the staff to help roll the vehicle away from the petrol pump if you are at a forecourt — the the nearest petrol station, the another forecourt nearby or somewhere else. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway in Silverbridge.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your motor has already run. Silverbridge sits over 50 miles from the M77; there, use the first junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Newry, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Silverbridge.
What takes place when our engineers get there around Silverbridge
We come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside the local primary school, close to the centre or on your own drive. What fluid got in, the quantity, and if it ran: our technicians ask because the replies set the work and price. You get that quote on the phone, before anybody heads out.
Emptying your tank comes next, then a thorough flush of your system. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and neither washes out by itself. That is why it matters more. Filter cleaned or, where it must be, replaced; fresh diesel in; and then a test of your car. The engine is fired up next and checked to be sure it runs properly, all before we leave.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour once our engineers get there, provided your engine has not run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a live forecourt and quiet at night beside a house. No money in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Before we get there, take a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Silverbridge and where it is
Silverbridge is a small locality in County Armagh, situated inland at an elevation of 154 metres, approximately 8 miles from Newry. Silverbridge is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its rural setting. Silverbridge sits near the villages of Mullaghbawn, Dorsey, and Creggan, in a region of Northern Ireland known for its rolling countryside.
AdBlue drains around Silverbridge, and County Armagh beyond
As a small village, Silverbridge has the same vans as nearby places — Dorsey, Creggan — right across BT postcodes and the wider area beyond. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting BT35 9.
There's no need to shift the vehicle. The drain happens on the spot, be it a drive, a road by a street just off the centre, or a layby on the way to the green space at the edge of the village. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of the far end of the built-up part, ring and ask instead of guessing.
The short version for Silverbridge drivers
Pour nothing till you have read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave it off and call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it waits, anywhere around County Armagh.