Stockton-on-Tees: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and the ignition off and call 0333 366 0103. Around Stockton-on-Tees, finding it before your motor runs normally leaves a drain and a thorough flush where it stands. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page explains the reasons it happens and the how to prevent it for good.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Many modern diesels around Newtown, as well as Stockton-on-Tees, carry on two fluids; your motor gets only the diesel. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust stream to clean it.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the layout on a lot of vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. Diesel goes in on each forecourt visit, week in, week out. Rarely filled, AdBlue usually comes from a bottle, poured by a driver who has to stop and think what cap to use. It's in that gap that the slip happens.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank take place in Stockton-on-Tees?
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the vehicle, and letting it run out leads to limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off High Street, or outside Blue Post on the way home after work.
Unfamiliar cars come next, as well. Hire cars, new vehicles and company vehicles place their fillers in new places, and the hand reaches for the cap used on the old one.
A spouted bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, after begun, keeps on. It takes a few seconds, whether out in Queens Park or bang in the heart of Stockton-on-Tees.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Stockton Grange or a forecourt in Stockton-on-Tees.
- Check the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue ones are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually aren't.
- On many cars, size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Lift the filler flap and check for a label — many cars mark which goes in which filler right there.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by the diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Ask when you collect a hire car or company car — at Stockton's car park, perhaps — rather than once the warning comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
Wherever around Durham the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Turn off once parked — level ground, motor stopped, and never in a rush beside Wellington Square on the verge.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, yes, yet it works.
- The diesel cap remains on. When the two share a flap, make sure it is shut before the bottle comes up.
- Stop when your tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; until then, tip gently using the built-in spout.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Find during the second or third step that AdBlue went into the wrong filler? That's where you stop. Stage five stays off limits.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Stockton-on-Tees already?
Brief list, then. First: your motor remains off. The fuel pump runs on many diesels the moment the ignition goes on — and so leave it off. Thinning it with extra diesel fails, since AdBlue sinks to the base instead of mixing — and that's where the fuel is pulled from.
Ask the attendants to help roll the vehicle clear of the pump if you are on a forecourt — the Esso, the JET or anywhere else. If you are on your own driveway in Stockton-on-Tees, leave the car where it stands.
Where your motor has run already, pull over safely then turn the vehicle off. Stockton-on-Tees sits under 10 miles from the A1(M); on it, use the next exit. About how far did it go? Hopping across Stockton-on-Tees is less work than a run of under 25 miles towards Durham, and so say.
When we arrive around Stockton-on-Tees, what happens?
Outside Mill Lane Primary School, near Stockton-on-Tees Town Hall or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, our technicians come to it. Both the work and the price rest on three answers — what fluid, which amount, and if it has run — so we ask. Nobody heads out until you've heard our quote over the phone.
Draining your tank comes next, then a full flush of your system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more here than with petrol. After the fuel filter has been flushed — or replaced, if required — fresh diesel is added, and finally the car gets tested. Before we go, our engineers start the car and make sure that it's running smoothly.
Unrun cars usually need a half-hour job from the moment we arrive. The kit is safe on a busy filling station, and hushed enough for a residential street late at night. Nothing in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. It is worth checking your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Stockton-on-Tees itself
Stockton-on-Tees is a town situated on the north bank of the River Tees in north-east England, with Queens Park, St Anns Hill, and Primrose Hill among its notable local areas. Stockton-on-Tees has a population of approximately 21735 people and is characterized by predominantly terraced housing. Stockton-on-Tees is located about 18 miles from the city of Durham and 216 miles from London. Stockton-on-Tees sits at a relatively low elevation of 16 metres above sea level, reflecting its riverside setting.
AdBlue drains across Durham, Stockton-on-Tees included
Throughout TS postcodes, our teams that cover Stockton-on-Tees — a riverside town — work the nearby locations too, Primrose Hill and St Anns Hill included. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting TS18 1.
Your car doesn't need to move. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street near Stockton Flea Market, a lay-by on the way to Trinity Green, a driveway. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Fountain Shopping Mall, ring and ask rather than guessing.
In short, for Stockton-on-Tees motorists
Before you pour, read the cap. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it where it is, wherever in Durham: switch it off and phone 0333 366 0103.