Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Storth: Why It Happens
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case set this page aside for now, leave your ignition and motor off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Storth. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Many newer diesels in Beetham, like those in Storth, run on two fluids; your motor gets just your diesel. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust gas to clean it.
Each tank comes with a filler of its own. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the arrangement on many vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. At the petrol pump, the diesel side gets filled constantly. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less regularly. The error lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs in Storth
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Hurry follows from the warning. The car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a driveway off Storth Road, or on the way home in the car park at The Ship Inn.
The old car's filler is where your hand reaches — but a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That is a second factor: an unfamiliar vehicle.
A spout-topped bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, after begun, keeps on. Sandside or the middle of Storth: it is the same few seconds in both.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Whether a Storth forecourt or a driveway over in Slack Head, spend a few seconds on these before any goes in.
- Read the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally aren't.
- Plenty of motors fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Check inside the fuel flap: many motors carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows which it lives if your filler is not next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Arnside, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
On the day the warning appears — wherever it is around Cumbria — a routine to follow.
- Pull in somewhere level, engine off, with time to spare — not hurried on the side of Green Lane.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew it. It sounds silly. It works.
- The diesel cap remains on. When both share a flap, confirm it's shut before lifting the bottle.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Never go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Storth?
Don't start your engine: that's how the short order of things begins. Keep your ignition off as well, because on plenty of diesels it by itself starts your pump. Thinning it with more diesel fails, since AdBlue settles to the base instead of mixing — and that is where your fuel is pulled from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it is the Shell or the BP, ask the attendants to help push the vehicle clear of the petrol pump. Your own driveway around Storth is the place it should stay.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your motor has already run. Leave the M6 — under 5 miles out of Storth — at the first exit. Distance counts — a quick hop across Storth is a smaller job than heading under 15 miles towards Lancaster — so tell us roughly how far it went.
What happens when we get there in Storth
By Storth CofE School, close to Sandside Quarry Lime Kilns or on your own driveway: wherever the vehicle has stopped, we come to it. What liquid got in, the quantity, and if it ran: we ask because those answers set the work and price. Nobody sets off before you've heard our price over the phone.
Draining the 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, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. The filter cleaned or, if it must be, swapped; fresh diesel in; then a check of the vehicle. We do not go until it has been fired up and is running correctly.
Unrun cars usually mean a half-hour job from arrival. The kit is fine on a busy filling station, and hushed enough for a residential street late at night. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork an insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — and so use the wait to look at yours.
About Storth
Storth is a small coastal village in Cumbria, situated near the estuary of the River Kent, with Sandside and Carr Bank nearby. Storth has a population of around 691 people and is characterised by detached housing. Storth sits at a low elevation of 24 metres above sea level, close to the shores of Morecambe Bay. Storth is located near Hazelslack, another local settlement, and is within commuting distance of Lancaster, the nearest city.
AdBlue drains around Storth and across Cumbria
Over LA postcodes, our vans that cover Storth — a coastal village — work the surrounding spots too, Hazelslack and Carr Bank among them. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting LA7 7.
The car does not need to move. Anywhere it sits — near Wood Edge Lime Kiln, in a layby heading to Sunny Hall Wood, on a drive — that's where it is cleared. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Heron Corn Mill, ring and ask rather than assuming.
The short version for Storth motorists
Tip no AdBlue till you have read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Leave the vehicle switched off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, throughout Cumbria.