How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Stubbins
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and your ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, done right where your vehicle stands around Stubbins, is normally all it needs when found before the engine runs. Not happened yet? Below, the rest of the page covers the why it takes place and the how to prevent it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Plenty of newer diesels around Ramsbottom, as well as Stubbins, carry on two liquids; your motor takes only the diesel. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust gas to clean it.
Every tank comes with one filler of its own. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. Filling your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on constantly. Rarely topped up, AdBlue usually comes out of a bottle, poured by someone who must stop and think which filler it needs. It's in that gap that the error happens.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs around Stubbins
Carelessness rarely causes it. Instead is three things coming up together.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Industrial Street before work, or in the car park at The Duckworth Arms on the way home.
The old car's cap is where the hand reaches — yet a hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That is a second thing: a new car.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the tip after it has started. Chatterton or the heart of Stubbins: it takes the same few seconds in both.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Whether a Stubbins forecourt or a driveway out in Carr, take a couple of seconds over these before any is poured in.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- On many motors, the size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside the fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on many motors. Check for it.
- Cannot find it next to the diesel inlet? Then check beneath the bonnet or inside your boot — the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Entwistle? Ask the person who drove it last before you set off, rather than when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Lancashire that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Robert Street, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park and switch off properly.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where the two share a flap, make sure it is closed before lifting the bottle.
- Finish once the tank fills or the bottle is empty; until then, tip gently through its built-in spout.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Don't go on to stage five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Stubbins?
The short order of things, beginning with no starting the motor. Keep the ignition off too, since on many diesels it alone runs the pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is drawn from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
The staff at EG On the Move, Esso or another forecourt will usually help pushing your car clear when asked. Your own drive around Stubbins is where it should stay.
Where your motor has run already, pull over somewhere safe and switch the vehicle off. Stubbins lies under a mile from the M66; on it, use the first exit. Distance counts — a short hop across Stubbins makes a smaller job than driving under 15 miles towards Salford — so say roughly how far it went.
Stubbins: what takes place when our technicians arrive
We come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Ramsbottom Stubbins Primary School, close to St Philip or on your own drive. What fluid was put in, the quantity, and whether it ran: our technicians ask because those answers set both work and price. During the call itself, you hear our price — before anything else.
Then that tank is drained and the system rinsed thoroughly. 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 matters more here than with petrol. Once the filter has been cleaned — or replaced, where needed — fresh diesel is added, and finally your vehicle gets tested. Then we start it and confirm it runs smoothly before leaving.
Using pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where your engine has not run take roughly half an hour once our technicians are there. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It is worth checking your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Stubbins
Stubbins is a small village in Lancashire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 133 metres. Stubbins lies near the cities of Salford and Manchester, and is surrounded by other local places such as Chatterton and Shuttleworth. Stubbins has a population of around 526 people, predominantly living in terraced housing. Stubbins is located in the North West region of England, approximately 174.7 miles from London.
Stubbins and Lancashire: AdBlue drains across the area
Shuttleworth and Strongstry are among the places around Stubbins, a village, that the same vans cover, over BL postcodes. A postcode starting BL0 0 gets our van to you fastest.
Your car doesn't need to shift. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to The Old River Garden, a side street close to Ramsbottom Fitness Centre: our engineers drain it where it is. Awkward to explain, like the back of Ramsbottom Community Church? By a county line? Asking beats assuming, and so phone.
For Stubbins motorists, the short version
Read the cap before you pour. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave the vehicle off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it waits, anywhere in Lancashire.