How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Sowerby Bridge
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case put this page aside for now, leave your ignition and motor off, then phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Sowerby Bridge. Not happened yet? Further down, the page covers the why it happens and the how to avoid it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Diesel goes to the motor — yet many modern diesels seen about Sowerby Bridge and Boulder Clough hold a second liquid as well. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Under one flap, side by side: that is the layout on many vehicles. On others, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. Topping up the diesel side at the petrol pump happens all the time. Much less often, the AdBlue side is filled — mostly from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. That gap is where the mistake lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank occur in Sowerby Bridge?
Carelessness rarely explains it. Instead is three things lining up at once.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the car, and running out means limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Stocks Lane, perhaps outside The Church Stile Inn on the way home that evening.
New-to-you cars are second, too. Rentals, new cars and company motors place their fillers differently, and habit goes for the cap used on the old one.
Third, the spout fits: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in as easily, and once the pour begins, no part halts it. Sowerby or the heart of Sowerby Bridge: it is the same few seconds either way.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Look at these before pouring, at a forecourt in Sowerby Bridge or a driveway out in Triangle. A few seconds, that's all.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually isn't. Read it instead of going by position.
- Plenty of motors fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Check for it.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler is if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at the nearest station? Check with whoever drove it last before leaving, rather than once the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in West Yorkshire that is.
- Turn off after you park — flat ground, motor stopped, and never rushed by St Peter's Avenue on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" aloud as unscrewing it. It sounds daft. It does the trick.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the car, close the cap and look a second time that your diesel cap never opened off.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Leave out step five entirely.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Sowerby Bridge?
Brief list, then. First: your motor stays off. Do not switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is drawn from.
The staff at Shell, BP or any forecourt will usually help pushing the vehicle away if you ask. On your own drive around Sowerby Bridge? So the vehicle remains put.
Where the engine has run by now, pull over somewhere safe then switch the car off. On the M62, under 5 miles from Sowerby Bridge, that means the next exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Bradford, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Sowerby Bridge.
What takes place when our technicians arrive in Sowerby Bridge
Outside Trinity Academy St Peter's, near Saint Peter's or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, our engineers come to it. Both the work and the quote rest on three replies — which liquid, what amount, and whether it has run — so our technicians ask. On the call itself, you are told our price — before anything else.
Your system is then purged thoroughly, after the tank is cleared. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own. A test comes last: before that, clean diesel goes in, and the fuel filter is cleaned or replaced if necessary. The motor is fired up next and tested to make sure it runs correctly, all before our technicians leave.
Unrun vehicles mostly mean a half-hour job after the moment we arrive. The kit is safe on a live filling station, and hushed enough for a driveway after dark. Your insurer will ask for the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both once this job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. It is worth checking your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Sowerby Bridge itself
Sowerby Bridge is a town situated in the Calder Valley in West Yorkshire, with the River Calder running alongside it. Sowerby Bridge sits at an elevation of 207 metres, surrounded by nearby places such as Sowerby, Beechwood, and Hubberton Green. Sowerby Bridge has a population of approximately 7160 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Sowerby Bridge is located 9.5 miles from Bradford and 169.8 miles from London.
Sowerby Bridge and West Yorkshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Sowerby Bridge is a riverside town, and our teams that cover it also work the places near it, Beechwood and Hubberton Green among them, across the HX postcode area. Fastest of all: give a HX6 1 postcode to our van.
There's no need to move the car. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street close to St Peters' Community Centre, a lay-by on the way to Sowerby St. Peter's Cricket Club, a drive. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Sowerby Castle, ring and ask rather than guessing.
The short version for Sowerby Bridge people
Pour no AdBlue until you have read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Keep the car switched off then ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, across West Yorkshire.