How It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Swain Green
Pause here a minute when the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Normally, if your motor has not run, it's emptied and fully rinsed where the car sits around Swain Green. Nothing happened yet? Below, the page explains the reasons it occurs and the ways to avoid it for good.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Plenty of newer diesels on the roads round Swain Green and Bowling carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, and there spraying cleans the fumes.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Other cars keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot more place the two side by side behind one flap. The diesel side is filled at the petrol pump all the time. Much less commonly, the AdBlue side is topped up — normally from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. Mistakes happen in the gap between them.
Swain Green: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
Carelessness seldom causes it. What does is three things coming up together.
On a driveway off Fearnville Drive before work, or in the car park at Swain Green Tavern heading home: that is where the rushed top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low the vehicle warns you, and if it's empty, limp mode follows.
Unfamiliar vehicles are second, too. Hire cars, new vehicles and company cars put their fillers differently, and habit goes for the cap used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, after begun, carries on. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Swain Green or out in Tyersal.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
A couple of seconds is all these take — so check them before you pour anything, on a drive in Tyersal Gate or a forecourt around Swain Green.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on many vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside the fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Look for it.
- The handbook shows which it is when the filler isn't next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- The previous driver will know. Ask when you pick up a hire car or fleet car — from Bradford Interchange's car park, perhaps — not once the light appears.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
When the light goes on, anywhere across West Yorkshire, use this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Sticker Lane, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park then switch off properly.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap works — once you have located your filler and read the cap.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Step five is off limits.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Swain Green?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with no starting your engine. Don't switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel won't dilute it: instead, AdBlue drops to the base of the tank, just where the fuel is taken from.
On a forecourt — the nearest petrol station, Shell or any other — the staff will usually help roll the vehicle clear, when you ask. If you are on your own driveway around Swain Green, leave it where it stands.
Where your engine has been run by now, stop safely and switch it off. Come off the M606 — under 3 miles out of Swain Green — at the first exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Bradford, under 3 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Swain Green.
Swain Green: what takes place when we turn up
Anywhere the vehicle came to rest, be it by Meadow Bank Community School, beside Holmewood Kingdom Hall of Jehovahs Witnesses or on your own drive, our van comes to it. Which fluid went in, the quantity, and if it ran: our engineers ask because the replies set both work and price. That price comes on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
Draining your tank comes next, followed by a full flush of your system. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. We don't go until it has been fired up and is running smoothly.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour once we arrive, provided your motor hasn't run — and the pumps we use are safe on a busy forecourt yet quiet after dark beside a house. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork your insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Misfuelling cover is included in many insurance policies — so use the wait to check yours.
About Swain Green
Swain Green is a suburban area located near Bradford in West Yorkshire, sitting at an elevation of 199 metres. Swain Green forms part of the larger urban landscape surrounding Bradford, with nearby places including Tyersal, Laisterdyke, and Cutler Heights. Swain Green is characterized by its predominantly terraced housing stock, reflecting the typical architectural style of many northern English towns. Swain Green is situated approximately 1.5 miles from Bradford city centre, making it a convenient residential location.
AdBlue drains around Swain Green and across West Yorkshire
Swain Green is a residential suburb, and the teams that cover it also work the places near it, Laisterdyke and Cutler Heights among them, across the BD postcode area. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting BD4 8.
The vehicle does not need to move. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Neil Hunt Memorial ground, a side street close to St Mary's Church: our technicians drain the vehicle where it sits. Assuming doesn't help at the back of Umm ul Qura Islamic Centre, close to a border, or somewhere awkward to describe; phone and check.
The short version for Swain Green people
Read the cap before you pour. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave it off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere in West Yorkshire.