Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Tamlaght: Why It Happens
Stop reading for a moment when your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Tamlaght. Here in advance? In that case the rest explains how it comes about and how to stop it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Many current diesels on the roads around Tamlaght and Enniskillen carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, where spraying treats the gas.
Different tanks, different fillers. Plenty of vehicles have a single flap for both, whereas some put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, your diesel side gets filled all the time. Seldom topped up, AdBlue usually goes in out of a bottle, poured by a driver who must stop and think what cap to use. The mistake grows in that gap between the two.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Tamlaght: how it takes place
Carelessness seldom explains it. Instead is three things lining up together.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car 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 Crown Street before work, or in the car park outside the pub in the village on the way home.
New-to-you motors come next, as well. Hire cars, new cars and company vehicles put their fillers differently, and the hand goes for the cap it used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, once begun, keeps on. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Tamlaght or out in Lisbellaw.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Whether a Tamlaght forecourt or a drive out in Arney, take a few seconds over these before anything is poured in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually is not. Read it rather than going by position.
- Many motors give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Open the flap and look for a label — plenty of motors mark what goes in which inlet just there.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by the diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside the nearest station, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
The day the light comes on, wherever across County Fermanagh, use this routine.
- Switch off after you park — level ground, engine off, and never rushed by Rock Street on the verge.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, yes, but it works.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Find during the second or third stage that the bottle went into the diesel filler? That's where you stop. Don't carry on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Tamlaght?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with not starting the engine. Leave the ignition off too, since on plenty of diesels it alone runs your pump. Diluting it with extra diesel fails, since AdBlue sinks to the base rather than blending — and that's where the fuel is sucked from.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it's the the nearest petrol station or the another forecourt nearby, ask the staff to help push the vehicle away from the petrol pump. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway around Tamlaght.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Leave the M77 — over 50 miles out of Tamlaght — at the first exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Armagh, under 50 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Tamlaght.
When our engineers turn up around Tamlaght, what takes place?
We come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside the local primary school, near the centre or on your own driveway. The answers settle this work and the quote, and so our technicians ask what got in, about how much, and whether it's run. On the phone call itself, you are told our quote — before dispatch.
Then your tank is drained and the system purged thoroughly. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and neither clears out unaided. Hence it counts more. Once the fuel filter has been cleaned — or renewed, if needed — clean diesel goes in, and finally your vehicle is tested. Then we fire it up and confirm it runs correctly before leaving.
If the engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. 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 policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Tamlaght and where it is
Tamlaght is a small locality in County Fermanagh, situated inland at an elevation of 49 metres. Tamlaght lies near the villages of Lisbellaw, Carrybridge, and Bellanaleck, and is approximately 37 miles from the city of Armagh. Tamlaght has a population of around 564 people, predominantly living in detached housing. Tamlaght is located in a rural area, with the nearest major city being Armagh
Tamlaght and County Fermanagh: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout BT postcodes, the vans that cover Tamlaght — a small village — work the nearby spots too, Bellanaleck and Carrybridge among them. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting BT74 4.
The vehicle does not need to shift. Draining happens on the spot, whether a driveway, a street near a street just off the centre, or a lay-by on the way to the green space at the edge of the village. Guessing won't help behind the far end of the built-up part, on a border, or somewhere hard to pin down; phone and check.
For Tamlaght motorists, the short version
Tip nothing until you have read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave the car off and ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it waits, anywhere in County Fermanagh.