Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Spink Hall
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case set this page down for now, keep your ignition and motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. Caught before your motor runs, it is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Spink Hall. The rest of this page explains why it happens and how to ensure it does not — handy if you are reading before it has happened.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Plenty of modern diesels on the roads about Spink Hall and East Whitwell carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, and there a spray treats the fumes.
Each tank has its own filler. 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 pump all the time. Rarely topped up, AdBlue normally goes in out of a bottle, poured by a driver who must stop and think which filler to use. It's in that gap that the mistake happens.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank happens in Spink Hall
Carelessness rarely explains it. Instead is three things coming up together.
Haste follows from the warning. The car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a drive off Glebelands Road, or on the way home in the car park outside The Red Grouse.
New-to-you cars come next, too. Hire cars, new vehicles and company motors put their fillers in new places, and the hand goes for the cap used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, after begun, keeps on. Hollin Busk or the heart of Spink Hall: it takes the same few seconds either way.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Shay House or a forecourt around Spink Hall, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue caps are often blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally do not.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by your diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Penistone? Ask whoever drove the car last before leaving, not when the light goes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
Anywhere in South Yorkshire the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Spurley Hey Grove.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, perhaps, but it works.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Stop once your tank fills or the bottle runs dry; until then, tip slowly through the built-in spout.
- Before starting your car, close the cap and check again that the diesel cap was never opened off.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Don't go on to stage five.
Spink Hall: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Short order, then. Top of that: your engine stays unstarted. Don't switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel won't dilute it: instead, AdBlue drops to the bottom of that tank, just where the fuel is drawn from.
The staff at JET, Murco or another forecourt will normally lend a hand to push the vehicle away if you ask. If you are on your own drive around Spink Hall, leave the vehicle where it sits.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the motor has already run. On the M1, under 5 miles from Spink Hall, that means the next exit. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Sheffield, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Spink Hall.
When our technicians turn up around Spink Hall, what occurs?
The van comes to your car anywhere it stopped — your own drive, beside Stocksbridge Christian Centre, or outside Stocksbridge Junior School. Our engineers ask what was put in, about how much, and whether it has run, since the answers determine the work and the price. No one sets off until you've heard the price over the phone.
The fuel system is then flushed thoroughly, once your tank is emptied. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. A test is at the end: before that, clean diesel is added, and the filter is flushed or replaced as needed. Before leaving, our engineers fire it up and make sure that it's running smoothly.
If the engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Your insurer will ask for an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. Before we get there, take a look at your insurance documents; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Spink Hall and where it is
Spink Hall is a suburban area situated near the city of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, with its riverside setting and elevation of around 255 metres. Spink Hall lies close to several nearby places, including Hollin Busk, Bracken Moor, and Knoll Top, and is characterized by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock. Spink Hall is located approximately 8 miles from Sheffield and around 149 miles from London, making it a commuter-friendly location.
AdBlue drains across South Yorkshire, Spink Hall included
Spink Hall is a residential suburb, and our teams that cover it also work the towns around it, Bracken Moor and Knoll Top among them, across the S postcode area. Give a postcode beginning S36 1, and our van gets there fastest.
The car doesn't need to move. Draining happens right there, whether a drive, a street by Stocksbridge Rugby Club, or a lay-by towards Bracken Moor. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Stubbin Estate Community Centre, ring and ask instead of assuming.
In short, for Spink Hall drivers
Pour no AdBlue till you've read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Leave it switched off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, throughout South Yorkshire.