Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Springfield
Stop reading a minute when the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and phone 0333 366 0103. In Springfield, catching it before your motor runs usually leaves draining and a thorough flush on the spot. The remainder of this page covers why it happens and how to make sure it does not — handy if you're reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel feeds your engine — but many current diesels seen around Springfield and Killadeas carry a second fluid as well. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank comes with one filler of its own. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the arrangement on a lot of vehicles. On others, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in your boot instead. Topping up your diesel side at the pump goes on all the time. Seldom filled, AdBlue normally comes out of a bottle, tipped by someone 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 Springfield
It is hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Haste follows from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a drive off Crown Street, or heading home in the car park at the pub in the village.
Unfamiliar cars are next, too. Rentals, new cars and company vehicles place their fillers differently, and habit reaches for the cap used on the old one.
Lastly, the spout goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in as easily, and once the pour begins, no part stops it. Ballycassidy or the heart of Springfield: it is the same few seconds either way.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Look at these first, on a forecourt in Springfield or a drive out in Blaney. A few seconds, no more.
- Read the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue ones are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally aren't.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- Check inside your fuel flap: many vehicles carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- In the 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.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside the nearest station? Ask whoever drove the car last before you set off, not once the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
For the day the warning appears — anywhere it is in County Fermanagh — a routine to use.
- Pull in on level, motor off, with time to spare — never hurried on the side of Crom Street.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" aloud as unscrewing it. It seems daft. It works.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, then check once more — confirm the diesel cap stayed closed the whole time. Only then, start the car.
Find at the second or third stage that the bottle went into the diesel tank? That is where you stop. Skip step five altogether.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Springfield already?
The short order of things, starting with not starting the engine. Don't switch the ignition on; on plenty of 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 your fuel is drawn from.
On a forecourt — the nearest petrol station, another forecourt nearby or any other — the staff will usually help roll your car clear, when you ask. If you are on your own drive in Springfield, leave the vehicle where it sits.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Springfield lies over 50 miles from the M77; on it, use the first exit. A short hop across Springfield is a smaller job than a run towards Armagh, under 50 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
Springfield: what takes place when our technicians arrive
Anywhere your car came to rest, whether by the local primary school, near the centre or at home, our van travels to it. Both the work and the quote depend on three answers — what fluid, which amount, and if it has run — so our engineers ask. You get that quote by phone, before anybody heads out.
Draining the tank comes next, then a thorough flush of your system. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own. A test is last: before that, fresh diesel is added, and the filter is cleaned or replaced as needed. After that we start the engine and confirm it runs properly before we go.
Unrun vehicles mostly mean a half-hour job from the moment we arrive. The kit is fine on a busy forecourt, and hushed enough for a residential street late at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is part of many insurance policies — so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Springfield, briefly
Springfield is a small locality in County Fermanagh, situated inland at an elevation of 48 metres. Springfield lies near several nearby settlements, including Ballycassidy, Trory, and Monea, and is approximately 42 miles from the city of Armagh. Springfield has a population of around 527 people, predominantly living in detached housing. Springfield is located a significant distance from major cities, with London being around 373 miles away.
Springfield and County Fermanagh: AdBlue drains across the area
Springfield is a small village, and our vans that cover it also work the towns near it, Trory and Monea among them, across the BT postcode area. Quote a postcode that starts BT93 7, and the van gets there quickest.
Your car stays put. The drain happens 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. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of the far end of the built-up part, ring and ask rather than assuming.
The short version for Springfield drivers
Read the cap before you pour. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it where it stands, anywhere around County Fermanagh: keep the vehicle off then phone 0333 366 0103.