Stenhills: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then set this page down a moment, keep your ignition and motor off, then phone 0333 366 0103. Normally, when your motor has not run, it is emptied and thoroughly flushed where the car sits in Stenhills. The rest of this page covers why it happens and how to make sure it does not — useful if you're reading before it has happened.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Not one liquid but two: that's what many newer diesels near Stenhills and Astmoor carry, with diesel feeding the engine. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, where a spray cleans the gas.
There's a filler on every tank. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in on each filling station call-out, week in, week out. Rarely filled, AdBlue normally comes from a bottle, poured by a driver who must stop and think which cap to use. That gap is where the error lives.
Stenhills: how AdBlue in the diesel tank happens
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from your car, and running dry means limp mode — so a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Boston Avenue, perhaps at The Burma Star on the way home after work.
Unfamiliar motors come next, too. Rentals, new motors and company motors put their fillers in new places, and habit reaches for the cap used on the old one.
A spouted bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, after begun, carries on. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Stenhills or out in Halton Brook.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Whether a Stenhills forecourt or a drive out in Grange, spend a few seconds on these before anything goes in.
- Read the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally are not.
- On many vehicles, size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many motors say there which fuel goes where.
- Cannot find it next to the diesel filler? In that case check below the bonnet or inside the boot — the owner's manual says where.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park at Runcorn? Check with whoever drove the vehicle last before leaving, not when the light goes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
Anywhere in Cheshire the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Pull in somewhere level, engine off, with time in hand — never rushing on the side of Halton Brook Avenue.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap works — after you've located your filler and read the cap.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where both sit under a flap, make sure it's closed before lifting the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start the car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Spot at stage two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? So stop right there. Skip stage five entirely.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Stenhills?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with no starting your motor. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels the moment your ignition is switched on — so keep it off. Topping up with diesel will not dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of that tank, right where fuel is taken from.
The staff at PEVA Fuels, Asda or any forecourt will normally lend a hand pushing the vehicle away if you ask. Your own driveway in Stenhills is where it should stay.
Already run? Pull over once it is safe, then turn off. Stenhills sits under 3 miles from the M56; there, use the first junction. Mileage counts — a quick hop across Stenhills is a smaller job than driving under 15 miles towards Liverpool — so say roughly how far it went.
Stenhills: what takes place when our technicians arrive
Anywhere the car came to rest, whether by Castle View Primary School, near The Hillcrest Centre or at home, the van travels to it. Both the work and our quote depend on three answers — what fluid, what amount, and whether it's run — so we ask. No one sets off until you've had our price over the phone.
Emptying that tank comes next, followed by a full flush of the system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that counts more here than with petrol. Filter flushed or, where it must be, swapped; clean diesel in; then a check of the car. Before we go, our engineers start the engine and make sure that it is running smoothly.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour once our engineers arrive, as long as the motor hasn't run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet after dark outside a house. The insurer will ask for an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Stenhills
Stenhills is a suburban area in Cheshire, situated near the coast and approximately 12 miles from Liverpool. Stenhills has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are predominant in the area. Stenhills sits at an elevation of around 55 metres, looking out towards the nearby urban centres of Halton Brook and Castlefields.
Stenhills and Cheshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Stenhills is a residential suburb, and our teams that cover it also work the places near it, Castlefields and The Brow among them, across the WA postcode area. Quickest of all: give a WA7 5 postcode to the van.
Moving the vehicle isn't necessary. Anywhere it stands — beside Halton Brook Community Centre, on a lay-by en route to Stenhills Open Space, on a drive — that's where it gets cleared. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you're near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Church of the Holy Spirit.
The short version for Stenhills motorists
Always, the cap; after that, the tip. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere in Cheshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — so leave it off then phone 0333 366 0103.