Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Spring Vale: Why It Happens
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and the ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. In Spring Vale, finding it before the motor turns usually means a drain and a thorough flush where it stands. Here before the event? Then the rest covers how it happens and how to prevent it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
No single liquid but two: that is how many newer diesels around Spring Vale and Penistone carry, with diesel for the motor. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust gas and cleans it.
Separate tanks, different fillers. 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. At the pump, the diesel side gets filled constantly. Much less regularly, the AdBlue side gets topped up — normally from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. The mistake lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank happen in Spring Vale?
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the car, and running dry leads to limp mode — so a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Sheffield Road, perhaps at Old Crown on the way home after work.
Unfamiliar vehicles come next, too. Hire cars, new motors and company motors place their fillers in new places, and habit goes for the cap used on the old one.
Nothing halts the tip once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Castle Green or the heart of Spring Vale: it is the same few seconds in both.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Check these before pouring, at a forecourt in Spring Vale or a driveway out in Bridge End. Seconds, that's all.
- Read the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually aren't.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many cars, the AdBlue one.
- Lift the flap and check for a label — plenty of motors mark what goes in each inlet right there.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by your diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before knows. Ask when you collect a rental or company car — from Penistone's car park, perhaps — rather than once the warning appears.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
The day the light goes on, wherever around South Yorkshire, follow this routine.
- Pull in on level, engine off, with time to spare — never hurried on the side of Green Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the vehicle on.
- Finish when that tank fills or the bottle runs dry; before that, pour gently using the built-in spout.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Find at step two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? Then stop just there. Leave out step five altogether.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Spring Vale?
Brief order, then. Top of that: your motor remains off. Leave your ignition off as well, because on many diesels switching it on by itself starts your pump. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is sucked from.
The attendants at Cecil Penney Ltd, Texaco or any forecourt will usually help to push the car clear if asked. If you are on your own driveway around Spring Vale, leave the vehicle where it stands.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the engine has already run. Spring Vale sits under 5 miles from the M1; there, take the first exit. A short hop across Spring Vale is a smaller job than a run towards Sheffield, under 15 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
Our arrival in Spring Vale, and what happens next
Outside Springvale Primary School, close to Penistone Church Football Ground or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our engineers come to it. We ask what went in, about how much, and whether it's run, since those replies settle this work and our price. On the phone call itself, you are told our quote — ahead of anything else.
The system is then cleaned thoroughly, once the tank is emptied. Much more than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: crystals build up, some metals are attacked, and nothing clears away unaided, no matter how long it sits. Once the filter has been cleaned — or replaced, where needed — fresh diesel goes in, and then your car gets tested. Then our technicians fire it up and confirm it runs correctly before leaving.
If your engine has not 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 after dark. Your insurer usually wants an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours once this job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Before we get there, take a look at your insurance documents; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Spring Vale itself
Spring Vale is a suburban area situated on the riverside in South Yorkshire, with a mix of terraced housing and a population of around 2544 residents. Spring Vale sits at an elevation of 205 metres, approximately 11.5 miles from Sheffield, and is near other local areas such as Castle Green and Longley Ings. Spring Vale forms part of the wider urban landscape around Sheffield, with the city's amenities and services within reach. Spring Vale is also located about 152.7 miles north of London, making it a relatively accessible location in the region.
AdBlue drains round Spring Vale, and South Yorkshire beyond
Spring Vale is a residential suburb, and the teams that cover it also work the towns around it, Longley Ings and The Green among them, across the S postcode area. Give a postcode beginning S36 6, and our van arrives quickest.
Your car stays where it is. We drain it where it is — a side street close to Penistone Sheep, a lay-by on the way to Penistone Cricket Club, a driveway. Assuming doesn't help behind Penistone Paramount Cinema, on a border, or anywhere awkward to describe; phone and ask.
For Spring Vale drivers, the short version
Always, the cap; after that, the pour. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave the car off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it waits, anywhere across South Yorkshire.