Stubbin: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Pause here a minute if the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Around Stubbin, finding it before the engine turns normally leaves a drain and a thorough flush on the spot. Not happened yet? Below, the rest of the page explains the reasons it occurs and the how to avoid it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of modern diesels in Spink Hall, like those in Stubbin, carry on two fluids; the engine takes only your diesel. Your exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the gas to clean it, from a separate tank.
There's a filler on every tank. Under one flap, side by side: that is the layout on a lot of motors. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less frequently, normally from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank happens in Stubbin
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out completely, your vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Bocking Hill before work, or in the car park at Legionnaires Club on the way home.
Then the car is new. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Lastly, the bottle goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in as readily, and after the tip starts, no part halts it. Knoll Top or the middle of Stubbin: it takes the same few seconds either way.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Wood Royd or a forecourt around Stubbin, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Position misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue ones are often blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually don't.
- The size. On many cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Open the filler flap and check for a label — many vehicles show what goes in each filler just there.
- Cannot see it beside your diesel filler? In that case check beneath the bonnet or inside the boot — the owner's manual says which.
- Whoever had it before knows. Ask when you collect a hire car or fleet car — at Penistone's car park, say — not when the warning appears.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in South Yorkshire that is.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Lee Avenue.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" aloud as unscrewing it. It sounds daft. It does the trick.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Shut the cap, and check again — making sure your diesel cap remained closed the whole time. Only then, start the vehicle.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Stage five stays off limits.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Stubbin?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with no starting the engine. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels as soon as your ignition goes on — so keep it off. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
On a forecourt — Murco, JET or any other — the attendants will usually help push the car away, if you ask. Your own drive in Stubbin is the place it should stay.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the motor has already run. Stubbin sits under 5 miles from the M1; on it, use the next junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Sheffield, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Stubbin.
Stubbin: what takes place when we turn up
Our engineers come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Royd Nursery and Infant School, near Clock Tower or on your own drive. The replies settle the work and the price, and so our technicians ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether it has run. You get that price by phone, before anybody sets off.
The system is then cleaned thoroughly, after the tank is cleared. More than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: crystals form, certain metals are attacked, and none of it clears out on its own, however long it sits. Testing comes at the end: before that, clean diesel is added, and the filter is flushed or changed as needed. Next we start the car and check it runs correctly before we leave.
Using pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where the motor hasn't run take roughly half an hour after our technicians are there. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. While we travel, have a look at your insurance documents; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Stubbin itself
Stubbin is a suburban area situated on the riverside in South Yorkshire, with a mix of semi-detached housing and a population of around 4496 residents. Stubbin sits at an elevation of 211 metres, overlooking the surrounding landscape and located near other local places such as Knoll Top and Wood Willows. Stubbin is close to the city of Sheffield, being approximately 8.2 miles away, and is part of the wider Sheffield urban area. Stubbin benefits from its proximity to local amenities and transport links, being 149.4 miles from London.
AdBlue drains round Stubbin, and South Yorkshire beyond
Stubbin is a residential suburb, and our vans that cover it also work the towns around it, Wood Willows and Bracken Moor among them, across the S postcode area. A postcode starting S36 2 gets our van to you fastest.
Shifting the vehicle is not needed. Anywhere it stands — near St Anne’s Catholic Church, on a lay-by en route to Clock Tower Gardens, on a drive — that is where it gets drained. Tricky to explain, like the back of Stubbin Estate Community Centre? Close to a county line? Checking beats guessing, so ring.
Stubbin people: the short version
First, the cap; then, the pour. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere in South Yorkshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless — so leave the car off and ring 0333 366 0103.