Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Smithy Bridge: Why It Happens
Keep your motor and ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Caught before your engine runs, it is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Smithy Bridge. The rest of this page explains why it happens and how to ensure it does not — handy if you're reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Many newer diesels around Greengate, like those in Smithy Bridge, carry on two liquids; your engine takes only the diesel. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it.
There is 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 your boot or under the bonnet. Topping up the diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less frequently. The slip lives in that gap.
Smithy Bridge: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
Hurry comes from the warning. Your car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a driveway off Smithybridge Road, or heading home in the car park at Tophams Tavern.
Next, your hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old car — since a hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the pour after it has started. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Smithy Bridge or out in Little Clegg.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Stubley or a forecourt in Smithy Bridge.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Go by the cap, not its position.
- The size. On plenty of cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Lift the filler flap and look for a label — plenty of motors show what goes in each inlet right there.
- Cannot see it beside the diesel filler? In that case check beneath the bonnet or inside the boot — the owner's manual says where.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park at the nearest station? Ask the person who drove it last before leaving, rather than once the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
Wherever around Greater Manchester the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Laurels Drive.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" aloud while unscrewing it. It seems silly. It works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, and look once more — making sure the diesel filler remained shut throughout. Only then, start your car.
Find at stage two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? So stop right there. Don't carry on to step five.
Smithy Bridge: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Short list, then. First: your motor remains off. Don't switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Topping up with diesel will not thin it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the base of the tank, right where fuel is drawn from.
The staff at Shell, Texaco or any forecourt will normally lend a hand to push the vehicle clear if asked. If you are on your own drive in Smithy Bridge, leave the vehicle where it stands.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Leave the M62 — under 3 miles out of Smithy Bridge — at the next exit. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Manchester, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Smithy Bridge.
When we get there around Smithy Bridge, what takes place?
Our engineers come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Smithy Bridge Foundation Primary School, near Smithy Bridge Methodist Church or on your own drive. Our engineers ask what went in, about how much, and whether it has run, because the answers decide this work and the price. That price comes over the phone, before any van leaves.
Then your tank is drained and the fuel system flushed 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. Filter cleaned or, where it must be, swapped; fresh diesel in; and then a check of the car. Before we go, we fire it up and check that it is running properly.
Unstarted cars usually mean a half-hour visit from arrival. The equipment is fine on a busy forecourt, and hushed enough for a residential street late at night. No money upfront; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. It is worth looking at your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Smithy Bridge and where it is
Smithy Bridge is a suburban area in Greater Manchester, situated near the lakeside and surrounded by nearby places such as Little Clegg and Hollingworth. Smithy Bridge sits at an elevation of 158 metres, approximately 12 miles from Manchester and 168.8 miles from London. Smithy Bridge has a population of around 3660 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing.
AdBlue drains across Greater Manchester, Smithy Bridge included
Hollingworth and Dearnley are among the towns near Smithy Bridge, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, throughout OL postcodes. A postcode starting OL15 0 gets our van to you fastest.
Moving your car isn't needed. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Smithy Bridge park, a side street close to Hollingworth Lake Rowing Club: our engineers drain it where it stands. Assuming won't help behind St Andrew, close to a boundary, or anywhere awkward to pin down; ring and check.
In short, for Smithy Bridge people
Tip no AdBlue till you have read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless, leave the car off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it sits, anywhere across Greater Manchester.