Spamount: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case put this page aside a moment, leave your ignition and engine off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Spamount. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the page covers the why it happens and the how to prevent it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Many modern diesels on the roads round Spamount and Killen carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust gas and cleans it.
Every tank has a filler of its own. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Topping up your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on constantly. Much less often, the AdBlue side is filled — mostly from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. The mistake grows in the gap between them.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place in Spamount
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Crown Street before work, or in the car park outside the pub in the village on the way home.
Then the vehicle is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Lastly, the spout goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in as easily, and after the tip begins, no part halts it. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Spamount or out in Erganagh.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Ardstraw or a forecourt around Spamount, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Position misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue ones are often blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually do not.
- 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 — many cars show what belongs in each filler right there.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by the diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside the nearest station? Ask whoever drove the car last before leaving, not once the light goes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in County Tyrone that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Crom Street, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park and switch off properly.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew it. It seems daft. It does the trick.
- The diesel cap remains on. When both sit under a flap, confirm it's closed before lifting the bottle.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, then check once more — confirm your diesel cap remained shut throughout. After that, start the vehicle.
Discover during the second or third step that AdBlue went into the wrong filler? That is where you stop. Stage five stays out.
Spamount: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Don't start the engine: that's how the short order of things starts. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch the vehicle on. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is sucked from.
The attendants at the nearest petrol station, another forecourt nearby or any forecourt will usually lend a hand pushing the vehicle clear when asked. If you are on your own driveway in Spamount, leave it where it stands.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. The next exit means the place to come off if you are on the M77, over 50 miles from Spamount. About how far did it go? Crossing Spamount is smaller a job than a run of under 25 miles towards Derry, so say.
Our arrival around Spamount, and what occurs next
Wherever your car has stopped, be it by the local primary school, near the centre or on your own drive, the van travels to it. Our technicians ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it has run, because those answers decide the work and the quote. Nobody sets off until you have had our quote over the phone.
Then your tank is cleared and the system rinsed thoroughly. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and none of it clears away unaided. That is why it counts more. Once the filter is flushed — or renewed, where required — clean diesel is added, and then the vehicle is tested. Before leaving, our technicians start the engine and make sure that it's running smoothly.
If the engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It is worth checking your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Spamount and where it is
Spamount is a locality in County Tyrone, situated inland at an elevation of 44 metres, and is located approximately 21.9 miles from Derry. Spamount is characterized by its semi-detached housing and is near other localities such as Erganagh, Castlederg, and Garvetagh. Spamount has a population of around 708 people and is part of the wider rural landscape of Northern Ireland.
AdBlue drains across County Tyrone, Spamount included
Throughout BT postcodes, the vans that cover Spamount — a small village — work the nearby locations too, Garvetagh and Castlederg among them. Give a postcode that starts BT81 7, and our van gets there fastest.
Shifting the vehicle isn't needed. Draining takes place right there, be it a drive, a road near a street just off the centre, or a lay-by towards the green space at the edge of the village. Tricky to explain, like the back of the far end of the built-up part? Close to a border? Asking beats assuming, and so phone.
In short, for Spamount motorists
Before you tip, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway, leave it off and call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it waits, anywhere across County Tyrone.