How It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Swingate
Pause here for a moment when the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then call 0333 366 0103. Usually, when your motor hasn't run, it is emptied and fully cleaned where your vehicle is in Swingate. The remainder of this page explains why it happens and how to ensure it does not — handy if you are reading ahead of time.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Diesel goes to the engine — but plenty of modern diesels driven around Swingate and Watnall hold a second liquid as well. Its own tank holds it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, where a spray treats the gas.
There's a filler on every tank. Other motors keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty more have the two side by side under one flap. Filling your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. Seldom topped up, AdBlue usually comes out of a bottle, poured by a driver who must stop and think what cap it needs. The mistake lives in that gap.
Swingate: how AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out altogether, your vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Swingate before work, or in the car park outside The White Lion on the way home.
Then, your hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old car — since a hire car, a new car or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
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 once it has started. Whether it happens in Kimberley or the middle of Swingate, it's the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A few seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Awsworth or a forecourt in Swingate.
- Check the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue ones are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally are not.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Open the flap and look for a label — many cars show which goes in each inlet just there.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by the diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Ilkeston.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
The day the light goes on, anywhere across Nottinghamshire, use this routine.
- Switch off after you park — flat ground, engine off, and not in a rush by Knowle Lane on the verge.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, yes, but it does the trick.
- The diesel cap remains on. When both sit under a flap, confirm it is closed 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, then check again — making sure the diesel cap stayed shut the whole time. Only then, start the vehicle.
Find during the second or third stage that the bottle went in the wrong tank? That is where you stop. Stage five stays out.
Swingate: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
The short order of things, starting with no starting the engine. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch the car on. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is drawn from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it's the Sainsbury's or the Esso, ask the staff to help roll the car away from the petrol pump. Your own driveway in Swingate is the place it stays.
Already started? Stop when it's sensible, then switch off. Leave the M1 — under a mile out of Swingate — at the next junction. A short hop across Swingate is a smaller job than a run towards Nottingham, under 5 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
Swingate: what happens when our engineers arrive
Our technicians come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Kimberley Primary School, close to The Chapel on the Hill or on your own drive. Those replies decide this work and our quote, so our technicians ask what was put in, about how much, and whether it has run. Nobody heads out until you have had our price by phone.
Next: a drain, then a full flush of the whole system. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and none of that clears away by itself. Hence it matters more. Filter cleaned or, where needed, replaced; fresh diesel in; then a check of the vehicle. We do not go until it has been started and is running smoothly.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour after we get there, provided the motor hasn't run — and the pumps our engineers use are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet at night beside a house. The insurer usually wants an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Swingate
Swingate is a small village in Nottinghamshire, situated approximately 4.9 miles from Nottingham and 113 miles from London. Swingate sits at an elevation of 131 metres, surrounded by nearby places such as Kimberley, Babbington, and Nuthall. Swingate has a population of around 1237 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Swingate remains a quiet residential community on the outskirts of Nottingham.
AdBlue drains around Swingate, and Nottinghamshire beyond
As a rural village, Swingate shares its vans surrounding areas — Babbington, Nuthall — all the way across NG postcodes and the wider area beyond. Quickest of all: give a NG16 2 postcode for our van.
The car doesn't need to shift. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Knowle Wood, a side street near The Stag Ground: our engineers drain the car where it sits. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Kimberley War Memorial, ring and ask instead of assuming.
Swingate drivers: the short version
Always, the cap; after that, the tip. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere across Nottinghamshire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same — and so leave the car off then call 0333 366 0103.