Stubshaw Cross: 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 your motor and your ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. A drain and a full flush, done right where your car sits in Stubshaw Cross, is usually all it needs when caught before the engine runs. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page explains the why it happens and the how to prevent it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel feeds your engine — but many newer diesels seen round Stubshaw Cross and Ashton Heath hold another liquid too. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There's a filler for every tank. Some motors put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others place the two side by side behind one flap. Diesel gets filled on every filling station visit, week in, week out. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less regularly, usually from a bottle, and usually by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. The slip lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank take place in Stubshaw Cross?
Carelessness rarely causes it. Instead is three things coming up at once.
Haste follows from the warning. The car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a driveway off John Street, or on the way home in the car park outside Harrow Inn.
Then the vehicle is strange. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the pour after it has started. Whether it happens in Town Green or the middle of Stubshaw Cross, it's the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Be it a Stubshaw Cross forecourt or a drive over in Edge Green, take a couple of seconds over these before any goes in.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue caps are often blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally don't.
- The size. On many cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many cars say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by the diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The previous driver will know. Check as you pick up a hire car or fleet car — from Bryn's car park, say — rather than once the warning comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
The day the light goes on, anywhere around Greater Manchester, follow this routine.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Barrow Street.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, perhaps, yet it does the trick.
- Both under a single flap? So confirm the cap on the diesel filler stays closed ahead of raising the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Discover during the second or third step that the bottle went in the diesel tank? That is where you stop. Step five is off limits.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Stubshaw Cross?
Short list, then. First: the engine stays unstarted. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch it on. Thinning it with more diesel won't work, because AdBlue settles to the bottom instead of mixing — and that is where the fuel is pulled from.
The attendants at Esso, Asda or another forecourt will usually help pushing your car away when asked. Your own driveway around Stubshaw Cross is where it should stay.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Leave the M6 — under 3 miles out of Stubshaw Cross — at the first exit. About how far did it go? Crossing Stubshaw Cross is smaller work than a trip of under 15 miles towards Salford, and so tell us.
When we arrive in Stubshaw Cross, what takes place?
Our engineers come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside St Wilfrids Catholic Primary School, near St Wilfrid or on your own drive. What fluid was put in, the amount, and if it ran: we ask since those answers set both work and quote. That price comes on the call, before any van leaves.
Draining that tank comes next, then a full flush of the fuel system. More than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: the crystals form, certain metals corrode, and nothing washes away on its own, no matter how long it sits. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. We don't go until it has been fired up and is running correctly.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour once our engineers arrive, provided the engine has not run — and the pumps our technicians use are fine on a live forecourt and quiet after dark outside a house. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork an insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Stubshaw Cross, for a moment
Stubshaw Cross is a suburban area in Greater Manchester, situated inland at an elevation of 59 metres. Stubshaw Cross lies approximately 13.5 miles from Salford and is surrounded by nearby places such as Town Green, Ashton-in-Makerfield, and Bryn Gates. Stubshaw Cross has a population of around 3777 people and is characterised by predominantly semi-detached housing. Stubshaw Cross is located in the North West region of England, about 172.9 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Greater Manchester, Stubshaw Cross included
Ashton-in-Makerfield and Bryn Gates are among the places around Stubshaw Cross, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, throughout WN postcodes. Quickest of all: give a WN4 8 postcode for the van.
Your car remains put. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Stubshaw Park, a side street close to Stubshaw Cross Community and Sports Club: we drain the car where it stands. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of St Luke.
Stubshaw Cross people: the short version
Read the cap before you tip. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave the vehicle off then call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it waits, anywhere in Greater Manchester.