Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Staining
Pause here for a moment if the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and phone 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, done right where the car stands around Staining, is usually all it takes when caught before your engine runs. Here in advance? In that case the rest covers why it comes about and what to prevent it happening at all.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Many newer diesels in High Cross, as well as Staining, carry on two fluids; your motor takes just the diesel. Your exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the fumes to clean it, from its own tank.
Every tank has one filler of its own. Many of motors have a single flap for both, while some put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled on every forecourt call-out, again and again. The AdBlue side is topped up far less regularly, normally from a bottle, and usually by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. Mistakes happen in that gap between them.
Staining: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out completely, the vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Staining Road before work, or in the car park at The Plough on the way home.
The old car's cap is where your hand goes — but a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That is a second factor: an unfamiliar motor.
No part stops the pour once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Staining or out in Newton.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Be it a Staining forecourt or a driveway over in Little Marton, take a few seconds over these before anything goes in.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- Many vehicles fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Look for it.
- Can't see it next to your diesel inlet? Then check beneath the bonnet or inside your boot — the handbook says which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Layton, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
On the day the light comes on — wherever it is around Lancashire — a routine to follow.
- Not in a rush on the side of The Nook, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park then switch off first.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap works — once you have found your filler and read it.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, and check again — making sure your diesel cap remained closed throughout. Only then, start the car.
Spot at stage two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? Then stop just there. Do not go on to stage five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Staining?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the engine. Leave the ignition off as well, since on many diesels switching it on by itself starts your pump. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is drawn from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it's the Gulf or the Shell, ask the attendants to help roll the car away from the petrol pump. If you're on your own driveway around Staining, leave the car where it is.
Already started? Stop when it's safe, then switch off. Leave the M55 — under 3 miles out of Staining — at the next junction. Mileage counts — a short hop across Staining is a smaller job than driving under 15 miles towards Preston — so say about how far it went.
When we arrive around Staining, what happens?
Our technicians come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Staining Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School, near Church of St Luke or on your own drive. What fluid got in, the amount, and whether it ran: our technicians ask because those replies decide both work and price. No one sets off before you have had the quote by phone.
Then the tank is emptied and your system rinsed thoroughly. More than with petrol, it counts here: the crystals form, certain metals corrode, and nothing washes out on its own, however long it is left. Once your filter is cleaned — or replaced, if required — clean diesel is added, and finally the vehicle gets tested. Before we go, our technicians start the car and check that it's running smoothly.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour after our engineers get there, as long as your engine hasn't run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a live forecourt and quiet after dark outside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It's worth looking at your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Staining itself
Staining is a small village in Lancashire, situated near the coast and approximately 12 miles from Preston. Staining has a population of around 1622 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Staining sits at a low elevation of 16 metres above sea level, close to nearby places such as Newton and Hardhorn Village.
AdBlue drains round Staining, and Lancashire beyond
Hardhorn Village and Normoss are among the towns around Staining, a coastal village, that the same vans cover, throughout FY postcodes. Quickest of all: give a FY3 0 postcode to our van.
No need to shift the car. Anywhere it sits — near Staining Village Hall, on a lay-by en route to Jubilee Gardens, at home — that's where it gets cleared. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Duck feeding area.
In short, for Staining people
Read the cap before you tip. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Keep the car off then phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, throughout Lancashire.