AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in South Elmsall: How It Happens and How to Stop It
Leave your engine and ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Usually, if the engine has not turned, it's drained and thoroughly purged where your car sits in South Elmsall. The rest of this page explains why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't — useful if you are reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Not one liquid but two: that's how many modern diesels around South Elmsall and Moorthorpe carry, with diesel for the engine. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust gas and cleans it.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the arrangement on a lot of vehicles. On others, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in your boot instead. At the pump, your diesel side gets filled all the time. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less often, normally from a bottle, and normally by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. It is in that gap that the slip happens.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank happens in South Elmsall
Carelessness seldom causes it. Instead is three things lining up at once.
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 Barnsley Road before work, or in the car park at Brookside Commercial & Social Club on the way home.
The old car's cap is where the hand reaches — yet a rental car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That is the second thing: an unfamiliar vehicle.
Third, the bottle fits: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in just as easily, and after the tip starts, nothing stops it. Elm Estate or the heart of South Elmsall: it takes the same few seconds either way.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Look at these first, on a forecourt around South Elmsall or a drive over in Minsthorpe. Seconds, no more.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally is not. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- Open the filler flap and look for a label — many cars show which goes in each filler just there.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler is if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside the nearest station.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across West Yorkshire that is.
- Pull in somewhere level, motor off, with time to spare — never rushing on the side of Lowgate.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It seems silly. It works.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Discover during the second or third stage that AdBlue went in the diesel tank? That's where you stop. Never carry on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in South Elmsall?
The short order of things, beginning with no starting the engine. Keep your ignition off too, since on many diesels it alone runs the pump. Thinning it with extra diesel won't work, since AdBlue settles to the bottom instead of blending — and that is where your fuel is pulled from.
Ask the staff to help roll your car away from the petrol pump if you are at a forecourt — the JET, the Shell or anywhere else. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway around South Elmsall.
Where the motor has been run already, stop safely then switch it off. Come off the A1(M) — under 5 miles out of South Elmsall — at the first exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Doncaster, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across South Elmsall.
South Elmsall: what takes place when our engineers arrive
Wherever the car came to rest, be it outside South Elmsall Carlton Junior and Infant School, beside South Elmsall Market or on your own drive, the van comes to it. The answers decide the work and our price, so our engineers ask what got in, about how much, and whether it's run. The price is given over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
Draining the tank comes next, followed by a full flush of the fuel system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Before we go, our engineers start the car and check that it's running correctly.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour after our technicians arrive, as long as your motor hasn't run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a busy forecourt yet quiet at night outside a house. No money in advance; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — so use the wait to look at yours.
About South Elmsall and where it is
South Elmsall is a town in West Yorkshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 31 metres, with nearby neighbourhoods including Elm Estate and Priory Estate. South Elmsall has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are predominant, and the town is located near Common End. South Elmsall is close to Doncaster, which is 8.1 miles away, and is approximately 152.2 miles from London. South Elmsall has a population of around 12188 people.
AdBlue drains around South Elmsall and across West Yorkshire
Over WF postcodes, our vans that cover South Elmsall — a riverside town — work the surrounding spots too, Common End and Priory Estate among them. A postcode starting WF9 2 gets the van to you fastest.
No need to move the vehicle. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near St Mary the Virgin, a lay-by on the way to Minsthorpe Park, a driveway. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Westfield Centre, ring and ask instead of guessing.
For South Elmsall motorists, the short version
Pour nothing till you've read the cap. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will empty it where it is, anywhere in West Yorkshire: keep the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103.