AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Tentergate: How It Happens and How to Stop It
Pause reading a minute when the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then call 0333 366 0103. Around Tentergate, finding it before the motor runs usually leaves draining and a full flush on the spot. The remainder of this page covers why it happens and how to make sure it does not — useful if you're reading before it has happened.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Plenty of newer diesels on the roads around Tentergate and Forest Lane Head carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust stream and cleans it.
Different tanks, different fillers. Plenty of vehicles have a single flap for the two, whereas some move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Filling your diesel side at the petrol pump happens all the time. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less regularly. It is in the gap that the mistake happens.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place in Tentergate
It's seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Coverdale Drive before work, or in the car park outside The Worlds End on the way home.
Next, your hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old vehicle — because a rental car, a new motor 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 pour once it has started. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Tentergate or out in New Scriven.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Calcutt or a forecourt in Tentergate, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Read the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally are not.
- The size. On many motors 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 the filler isn't by your diesel cap, it is in the 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 at Knaresborough, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
On the day the light appears — anywhere you are across North Yorkshire — a simple routine to use.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of High Bond End.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap works — after you have found the filler and read the cap.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Shut the cap, then check again — making sure your diesel cap remained shut throughout. Only then, start your car.
Discover at the second or third stage that the bottle went in the wrong tank? That is where you stop. Don't carry on to step five.
Tentergate: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Do not start the engine: that's where the short order of things begins. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch the vehicle on. Diluting it with more diesel won't work, because AdBlue settles to the base instead of mixing — and that's where your fuel is drawn from.
The staff at Asda, Morrisons or another forecourt will usually help pushing the car clear when you ask. At home around Tentergate? Then the vehicle stays put.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the motor has already run. The next junction is the place to leave if you're on the A1(M), under 5 miles from Tentergate. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Ripon, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Tentergate.
What occurs when we get there around Tentergate
Outside St Mary's Primary School Knaresborough, A Voluntary Catholic Academy, close to The Dower House plaque or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our technicians come to it. Which fluid went in, the quantity, and if it ran: our engineers ask since those replies set the work and quote. That quote comes over the phone, before any van leaves.
The fuel system is then purged thoroughly, after your tank is emptied. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Next we fire it up and check it runs properly before leaving.
Unrun cars usually need a half-hour visit after arrival. The equipment is safe on a busy filling station, and hushed enough for a driveway after dark. The insurer will ask for the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Tentergate
Tentergate is a suburban area situated on the riverside in North Yorkshire, with an elevation of 74 metres and a population of approximately 2666 residents. Tentergate is located near the cities of Ripon and Knaresborough, and is close to the smaller communities of New Scriven and Scriven. Tentergate is characterized by its predominant semi-detached housing stock, reflecting the typical residential architecture of the region. Tentergate sits within a wider landscape of rolling hills and valleys, about 182 miles north of London.
AdBlue drains across North Yorkshire, Tentergate included
Over HG postcodes, the vans that cover Tentergate — a residential suburb — work the nearby places too, Knaresborough and Scriven among them. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting HG5 9.
There's no need to shift your car. Draining takes place right there, be it a driveway, a road near St John's House plaque, or a layby towards Horseshoe Field. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of St Mary's Church.
In short, for Tentergate people
Read the cap before you tip. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it waits, anywhere around North Yorkshire.