Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Team Valley: Why It Happens
Leave your motor and ignition off and call 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. A drain plus a thorough flush, carried out just where your vehicle sits in Team Valley, is normally all it takes if caught before the motor runs. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the page covers the why it occurs and the ways to avoid it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
No single fluid but two: that's how many newer diesels around Team Valley and Lady Park carry, with diesel feeding your engine. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Many of motors share a single flap for the two, while some put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. Far less regularly, the AdBlue side is topped up — normally from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. That gap is where the mistake lives.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank occur around Team Valley?
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out altogether, your vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Queensway South before work, or in the car park at The Nine Pins on the way home.
The old car's cap is where the hand reaches — yet a hire car, a new car or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That is the second factor: a strange vehicle.
Lastly, the bottle goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in as easily, and once the tip starts, nothing halts it. Whether it happens in Chowdene or the middle of Team Valley, 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 check them before you tip anything, on a drive in Saltwell or a forecourt around Team Valley.
- Check the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually are not.
- On plenty of cars, the size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on many motors. Check for it.
- Cannot find it beside the diesel inlet? Then check below the bonnet or in the boot — the owner's manual says where.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at Dunston, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
When the light comes on, anywhere in Tyne and Wear, use this routine.
- Turn off once parked — level ground, engine off, and not in a rush beside Eastern Avenue on the verge.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew it. It seems daft. It works.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where the two share a flap, make sure it is closed before the bottle comes up.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before you start your car, shut the cap and look a second time that the diesel cap was never opened off.
Spot at step two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? So stop just there. Never go on to step five.
Team Valley: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Short order, then. Top of that: the motor stays unstarted. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch the car on. Topping up with diesel will not weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the base of your tank, right where fuel is drawn from.
The staff at Sainsbury's, EV Chargers or another forecourt will usually help to push the car away when asked. If you are on your own driveway in Team Valley, leave the vehicle where it is.
When the motor has run already, stop somewhere safe and turn it off. Team Valley lies under 3 miles from the Central Motorway East; there, take the next exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Newcastle upon Tyne, under 5 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Team Valley.
What takes place when our technicians get there in Team Valley
Wherever the vehicle has stopped, be it by Oakfield Junior School, beside Site of Ravensworth coalmill or at home, our van comes to it. Both the work and our price depend on three replies — which fluid, which quantity, and if it has run — so our technicians ask. The quote comes over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
Then the tank is drained and the fuel system flushed thoroughly. Much more than with petrol, it matters here: the crystals build up, certain metals corrode, and nothing clears away unaided, however long it sits. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. We don't go until it has been fired up and is running smoothly.
If the motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe 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. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Team Valley and where it is
Team Valley is a small suburban area located on the riverside in Tyne and Wear, near the city of Newcastle upon Tyne. Team Valley sits at a low elevation of around 10 metres, close to the River Tyne, and is surrounded by other nearby places such as Chowdene and Lobley Hill. Team Valley has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are the most predominant. Team Valley is situated approximately 3 miles from Newcastle upon Tyne, making it a convenient residential area.
AdBlue drains around Team Valley, and Tyne and Wear beyond
Lobley Hill and Low Fell are among the towns near Team Valley, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, over NE postcodes. Give a postcode that starts NE11 0, and our van gets there fastest.
Your car does not need to move. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Shanks Wood, a side street near Rutherford AFC: our technicians drain the car where it is. Awkward to pin down, like the back of TK Maxx? By a border? Asking is better than assuming, and so phone.
Team Valley people: the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave the car off and phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere in Tyne and Wear.