How It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in St James End
Leave your engine and ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. A drain and a full flush, carried out just where your vehicle sits around St James End, is normally all it needs if caught before your engine runs. Nothing happened yet? Below, the page covers the reasons it takes place and the how to avoid it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Diesel feeds the motor — yet plenty of modern diesels driven round St James End and Kings Heath hold another liquid too. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust gas to clean it.
Separate tanks, separate 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. Diesel gets filled at each forecourt visit, week in, week out. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less regularly. The error lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs in St James End
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
On a driveway off Gladstone Road before work, or in the car park outside The Foundrymans Arms heading home: that's where the hurried top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low your car warns you, and once it is gone, limp mode kicks in.
Unfamiliar vehicles come second, as well. Rentals, new motors and company motors place their fillers in new places, and the hand reaches for the cap used on the old one.
Third, the spout goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in as readily, and once the pour begins, nothing halts it. It takes a few seconds, be it in St Jamess End or right in the heart of St James End.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Queens Park or a forecourt around St James End, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- Open the filler flap and check for a label — plenty of motors show what goes in which filler just there.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by the diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Ask when you pick up a rental or fleet car — at Northampton's car park, perhaps — rather than when the light appears.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
When the light goes on, wherever around Northamptonshire, follow this routine.
- Stop on level, engine off, with time to spare — never hurried on the side of Spencer Bridge Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- The two under a single flap? Then confirm the cap on your diesel side stays shut ahead of raising the bottle.
- Finish once the tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; until then, pour slowly through its own spout.
- Only then, start the vehicle: close the cap, check again, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Find at the second or third stage that the bottle went into the diesel tank? That is where you stop. Step five is out.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in St James End?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with not starting your engine. Keep the ignition off as well, since on many diesels switching it on alone runs your pump. Filling up with diesel won't thin it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of your tank, right where the fuel is drawn from.
The staff at Gulf, JET or any forecourt will usually lend a hand to push the car clear if you ask. Your own drive in St James End is the place it stays.
Already started? Pull over once it's safe, then switch off. The next junction means the place to come off if you're on the M1, under 3 miles from St James End. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Milton Keynes, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across St James End.
What takes place when our engineers turn up in St James End
The van reaches the car anywhere it has come to rest — your own drive, near Elim Christian Centre, or by St James Church of England Primary School. Our technicians ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it's run, since the replies settle the work and our quote. No one sets off before you've heard the quote over the phone.
Your system is then rinsed thoroughly, after the 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 that counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. The filter cleaned or, where needed, swapped; fresh diesel in; and then a test of your car. Before we leave, we fire it up and check that it is running properly.
Unrun vehicles usually mean a half-hour visit after the moment we arrive. The equipment is safe on a live forecourt, and hushed enough for a residential street after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — so make use of the wait to check yours.
About St James End, briefly
St James End is a suburban area located on the riverside in Northamptonshire, with an elevation of 67 metres. St James End sits near the city of Northampton and the nearby settlement of Dallington, and is approximately 15 miles from Milton Keynes. St James End is characterized by a high proportion of flat housing, and is home to around 12,000 residents. St James End is also within commuting distance of London, at around 61 miles away.
AdBlue drains in St James End and across Northamptonshire
Throughout NN postcodes, the teams covering St James End — a residential suburb — work the nearby spots too, Dallington and Northampton included. Give a postcode beginning NN5 7, and the van arrives quickest.
There's no need to move the car. Wherever it sits — near Boy Brigade Old Boys Rugby Club, on a layby heading to Victoria Park, at home — that is where it is cleared. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of St James Parish Church, ring and ask rather than assuming.
For St James End motorists, the short version
Always, the cap; then, the tip. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it where it is, anywhere across Northamptonshire: switch the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103.