Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Stargate: Why It Occurs
Pause reading a minute when your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Usually, if your engine has not run, it's emptied and fully rinsed where your car sits around Stargate. Not happened yet? Further down, the page covers the why it occurs and the ways to avoid it for good.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Not one liquid but two: that's what plenty of modern diesels near Stargate and Stella carry, with diesel for your motor. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust stream and cleans it.
Different tanks, different fillers. Some cars keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot more have both side by side behind one flap. At the petrol pump, the diesel side gets filled constantly. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less often. That gap is where the mistake lives.
Stargate: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the vehicle, and running dry means limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Bishops Drive, or outside The Runhead Bar & Grill on the way home that evening.
The old car's filler is where your hand goes — but a hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That's a second thing: an unfamiliar car.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the pour after it has started. It takes a few seconds, whether in Crookhill or bang in the centre of Stargate.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A couple of seconds is all these take — so check them before you tip anything, on a drive in Blaydon Burn or a forecourt in Stargate.
- Position can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally don't.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many cars, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of cars say there which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler is if it is not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Blaydon.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
For the day the warning comes on — wherever you are in Tyne and Wear — a simple routine to follow.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Leslie Close.
- 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 diesel cap stays on. When the two share a flap, make sure it is closed before the bottle comes up.
- Stop when your tank fills or the bottle is empty; until then, tip slowly through the built-in spout.
- Close the cap, and check once more — making sure your diesel cap stayed shut throughout. Only then, start your car.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Stage five stays off limits.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Stargate already?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the motor. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch the vehicle on. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is drawn from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
The staff at the nearest petrol station, Shell or any forecourt will usually help pushing your car away if asked. On your own drive in Stargate? So the vehicle remains where it is.
Already run? Stop when it is sensible, then turn off. On the Central Motorway East, under 10 miles from Stargate, that means the next exit. Mileage matters — a short hop across Stargate is a smaller job than driving under 10 miles to Newcastle upon Tyne — so say about how far it went.
Our arrival around Stargate, and what takes place next
Our van reaches the car wherever it has come to rest — your own driveway, beside Stargate & Crookhill community Centre, or by Crookhill Community Primary School. We ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether it's run, because those answers settle this work and the price. That quote comes over the phone, before any van leaves.
Then the tank is emptied and the fuel system purged thoroughly. Much more than with petrol, it matters here: crystals form, certain metals are attacked, and none of it clears out unaided, however long it is left. Testing is at the end: before that, fresh diesel is added, and your filter is flushed or replaced if necessary. We don't go until it has been started and is running properly.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour after we get there, as long as the engine has not run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a live forecourt and quiet at night outside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Stargate, for a moment
Stargate is a suburban area located inland in Tyne and Wear, with an elevation of around 86 metres. Stargate sits approximately 5.6 miles from Newcastle upon Tyne, in close proximity to nearby places such as Crookhill, Hedgefield, and Ryton. Stargate has a population of around 2959 residents, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Stargate is situated in the North East region of England, about 248.3 miles from London.
AdBlue drains around Stargate and across Tyne and Wear
Hedgefield and Ryton are among the places near Stargate, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, throughout NE postcodes. Give a postcode that starts NE40 3, and the van gets there quickest.
There's no need to shift the vehicle. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near Blaydon Cycle Club, a lay-by on the way to Path Head Nature Reserve, a drive. Guessing doesn't help at the back of Ryton Library, close to a border, or anywhere hard to pin down; ring and ask.
Stargate drivers: the short version
Always, the cap; then, the pour. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere in Tyne and Wear, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same — so leave the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103.