Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Springwell: Why It Happens
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and the ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103. In Springwell, finding it before the engine turns usually means draining and a thorough flush on the spot. The remainder of this page explains why it occurs and how to ensure it doesn't — useful if you are reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Many modern diesels on the roads around Springwell and Wrekenton carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank comes with one filler of its own. Under one flap, side by side: that is the layout on many motors. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in the boot instead. Filling your diesel side at the petrol pump happens all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less regularly, usually from a bottle, and usually by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the error lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Springwell: how it occurs
Carelessness rarely explains it. Instead is three things coming up at once.
Haste follows from the warning. The car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a drive off Lismor Terrace, or heading home in the car park at The Guidepost.
Next, the hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old car — because a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
A spouted bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, once started, carries on. Whether it takes place in Donwell or the middle of Springwell, it's the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Be it a Springwell forecourt or a drive over in Eighton Banks, take a few seconds over these before any goes in.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of motors, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many cars say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says where it is if the filler isn't next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park at Heworth? Ask whoever drove the vehicle last before you set off, rather than once the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
Wherever in Tyne and Wear the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Turn off after you park — level ground, motor stopped, and never in a rush by Highworth Drive on the verge.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you've located the filler and read it.
- Both under one flap? Then make sure the cap on the diesel filler is still shut ahead of raising the bottle.
- Finish once your tank fills or the bottle is empty; before that, pour slowly using its own spout.
- Only then, start the car: close the cap, check again, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Leave out step five altogether.
Springwell: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Brief order, then. Top of it: your motor stays off. Keep the ignition off as well, because on many diesels it alone starts the fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
Ask the attendants to help push the car clear of the pump if you're on a forecourt — the the nearest petrol station, the JET or somewhere else. If you are on your own drive around Springwell, leave the car where it sits.
When your engine has run by now, stop safely and turn it off. Springwell lies under a mile from the A194(M); on it, take the first junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Newcastle upon Tyne, under 5 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Springwell.
When our technicians get there around Springwell, what happens?
Wherever the car came to rest, whether by Springwell Village Primary School, near Springwell Village Methodist Church or at home, our van travels to it. Both the work and the price rest on three replies — what liquid, which amount, and if it has run — so we ask. On the call itself, you hear our quote — ahead of anything else.
Next: draining, then a thorough flush of the whole system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and neither clears out unaided. Hence it matters more. Filter flushed or, where needed, replaced; clean diesel in; and then a test of your car. We do not go until it has been started and is running correctly.
Unrun cars usually need a half-hour visit from the moment we arrive. The kit is safe on a busy filling station, and quiet enough for a driveway late at night. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents your insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. It's worth looking at your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Springwell and where it is
Springwell is a village in Tyne and Wear, situated inland at an elevation of 133 metres, approximately 4.7 miles from Newcastle upon Tyne. Springwell has a population of around 2141 people, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type. Springwell is located near other local places such as Donwell, Blackfell, and Usworth, and is about 243 miles north of London.
Springwell and Tyne and Wear: AdBlue drains across the area
Over NE postcodes, the teams that cover Springwell — a rural village — work the surrounding spots too, Usworth and Blackfell included. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting NE9 7.
Shifting the vehicle isn't needed. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Springwell Estate Millennium Green, a side street near Bowes Railway: our engineers drain it where it sits. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Mount Community Centre.
Springwell motorists: the short version
Pour no AdBlue until you've read the cap. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will empty it where it is, wherever around Tyne and Wear: keep the car off then phone 0333 366 0103.