Why It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Spring Gardens
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case put this page aside a moment, keep your ignition and motor off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Usually, if the motor hasn't turned, it is drained and thoroughly rinsed where your car sits in Spring Gardens. Not happened yet? Below, the page covers the why it takes place and the ways to prevent it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Many modern diesels in Greenheys, as well as Spring Gardens, carry on two fluids; the motor takes just your diesel. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, where spraying treats the gas.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the layout on a lot of vehicles. On others, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in the boot instead. Diesel goes in on every forecourt visit, again and again. Far less regularly, the AdBlue side is topped up — mostly from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. It is in that gap that the mistake lives.
Spring Gardens: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
It's seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from the car, and letting it run dry leads to limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Stocksfield Drive, or outside White Lion on the way home that evening.
Then the vehicle is strange. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
No part stops the pour after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Street Gate or the middle of Spring Gardens: it takes the same few seconds either way.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Check these before pouring, at a forecourt around Spring Gardens or a drive over in New Bury. A few seconds, that's all.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many cars, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler is if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Whoever had it before knows. Ask as you collect a hire car or company car — at Walkden's car park, perhaps — rather than when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
On the day the warning comes on — wherever you are in Greater Manchester — a routine to use.
- Not in a rush on the side of Baron Fold Crescent, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park and switch off properly.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, perhaps, yet it works.
- The two under one flap? Then confirm the lid on your diesel filler is still closed before lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the vehicle, close the cap and check again that your diesel cap never came off.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Do not go on to step five.
Spring Gardens: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Don't start the motor: that's where the short order of things begins. Leave your ignition off as well, since on many diesels switching it on by itself starts your fuel pump. Filling up with diesel will not dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the bottom of your tank, just where the fuel is taken from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it's the Deccan Fuels or the Essar, ask the staff to help roll the vehicle away from the pump. Your own drive in Spring Gardens is the place it stays.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the motor has already run. On the M61, under a mile from Spring Gardens, that means the next exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Salford, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Spring Gardens.
When we turn up around Spring Gardens, what occurs?
By St Paul's Peel CofE Primary School, near Ram Street Gospel Hall or on your own drive: wherever your car has stopped, our technicians come to it. What liquid went in, the quantity, and if it ran: our engineers ask because the replies set the work and price. No one heads out until you have had the quote by phone.
The system is then cleaned thoroughly, once that tank is cleared. More than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: crystals build up, certain metals corrode, and nothing washes away on its own, no matter how long it sits. Testing is last: before that, clean diesel is added, and your filter is flushed or changed as needed. The engine is started next and checked to confirm it runs smoothly, all before our engineers go.
If your motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents an insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. While we travel, take a look at your insurance documents; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Spring Gardens, briefly
Spring Gardens is a suburban area in Greater Manchester, situated approximately 6.5 miles from Salford and 170.1 miles from London. Spring Gardens has a population of around 8475 people and is characterised by semi-detached housing. Spring Gardens sits inland, with nearby places including Street Gate, Little Hulton, and Peel, and has an elevation of 104 metres.
AdBlue drains around Spring Gardens, and Greater Manchester beyond
Little Hulton and Peel are among the towns near Spring Gardens, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, over M postcodes. Quickest of all: quote a M38 9 postcode to the van.
Shifting the car is not needed. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street near St Paul Peel, Parish Community Hall, a lay-by on the way to Peel Park, a drive. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Greenheys Youth Centre, ring and ask rather than guessing.
The short version for Spring Gardens motorists
Before you pour, read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Keep the vehicle switched off then ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, throughout Greater Manchester.