Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Starling
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and your ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. A drain and a full flush, carried out right where your car sits around Starling, is usually all it needs if found before your engine runs. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the page covers the reasons it occurs and the ways to avoid it altogether.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Many modern diesels around Owler Barrow, as well as Starling, run on two liquids; your motor takes just your diesel. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Different tanks, different fillers. Plenty of vehicles share a single flap for the two, while some move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Topping up your diesel side at the pump goes on constantly. Far less regularly, the AdBlue side is topped up — normally from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. That gap is where the error lives.
Starling: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from your car, and letting it run dry leads to limp mode — so a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Ashington Drive, or at Black Bull on the way home after work.
Then the car is strange. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Third, the spout goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in just as easily, and once the tip begins, nothing stops it. Whether it takes place in Cockey Moor or the middle of Starling, it's the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Whether a Starling forecourt or a driveway over in Bolholt, spend a few seconds over these before anything goes in.
- Check the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally aren't.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many cars say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by the diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Hall i' th' Wood? Ask the person who drove the car last before you set off, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Greater Manchester that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Lowercroft Road, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park and switch off properly.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew it. It seems silly. It does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where both sit under a flap, make sure it's shut before lifting the bottle.
- Stop once that tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; until then, pour gently through the own spout.
- Only after that, start the car: close the cap, check again, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Don't go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Starling?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your motor. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch the vehicle on. Topping up with diesel will not thin it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the base of your tank, just where the fuel is drawn from.
The attendants at the nearest petrol station, Esso or any forecourt will usually help pushing the vehicle clear when asked. Your own driveway in Starling is where it should stay.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. On the M66, under 3 miles from Starling, that means the next junction. About how far did it go? Hopping across Starling is less a job than a trip of under 10 miles towards Salford, so tell us.
What occurs when our technicians arrive in Starling
Anywhere the vehicle has stopped, be it outside Lowercroft Primary School, beside Elton Vale Sports Centre or at home, our van comes to it. Those answers determine this work and the quote, so our engineers ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether it has run. You hear that quote by phone, before anyone heads out.
Next: a drain, then a full flush of the entire system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that counts more here than with petrol. Once your filter is flushed — or renewed, if required — fresh diesel is added, and then your car is tested. Before we leave, our engineers start it and check that it is running correctly.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour once our engineers arrive, as long as your engine has not run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a busy forecourt yet quiet at night beside a house. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents your insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Starling
Starling is a locality situated on the lakeside in Greater Manchester, with an elevation of 149 metres and a population of around 1340 residents. Starling is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its relatively affluent demographic. Starling benefits from its proximity to nearby places such as Cockey Moor, Ainsworth, and Walshaw, while also being within easy reach of the city of Salford, located approximately 7.8 miles away. Starling is also relatively distant from London, at a distance of 171.3 miles.
AdBlue drains about Starling, and Greater Manchester beyond
Throughout BL postcodes, our vans covering Starling — a small village — work the nearby locations too, Walshaw and Ainsworth among them. A postcode starting BL8 2 gets our van to you fastest.
The car remains where it is. We drain it where it is — a side street near Christ Church, Walshaw, a lay-by on the way to Elton Vale, a drive. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you are near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Ainsworth Library.
For Starling people, the short version
First, the cap; after that, the tip. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Leave it switched off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, throughout Greater Manchester.