AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in The Rings: Why It Happens and How to Prevent It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and the ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in The Rings. The rest of this page explains why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't — useful if you're reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Plenty of modern diesels around Eaglescliffe, as well as The Rings, carry on two liquids; your engine gets just the diesel. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Different tanks, separate fillers. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, the diesel side is topped up constantly. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less frequently. The mistake grows in the gap between them.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around The Rings: how it happens
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
Haste follows from the warning. The car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a driveway off Holme Rose Way, or on the way home in the car park outside Myton House.
Unfamiliar vehicles come second, too. Hire cars, new vehicles and company motors place their fillers in new places, and the hand reaches for the cap it used on the old one.
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 after it has started. Whether it occurs in Broom Hill or the middle of The Rings, it's the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Whether a The Rings forecourt or a driveway over in High Leven, take a few seconds over these before anything is poured in.
- Check the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally are not.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on many cars, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Look for it.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by the diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Eaglescliffe, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
Anywhere in North Yorkshire the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Stop on level, motor off, with time to spare — never hurried on the side of Lindum Way.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap works — after you have located your filler and read the cap.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Stop once your tank fills or the bottle is empty; until then, pour gently using the own spout.
- Shut the cap, then look again — making sure the diesel cap stayed shut throughout. Only then, start your car.
Spot at stage two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? So stop right there. Step five stays off limits.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around The Rings?
Do not start the engine: that's where the short order of things begins. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels the moment your ignition goes on — so keep it off. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is pulled from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it is the Tesco or the Shell, ask the attendants to help roll the car away from the pump. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway around The Rings.
Already started? Pull over once it's safe, then turn off. On the A1(M), under 15 miles from The Rings, that means the next junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Durham, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across The Rings.
What happens when our engineers get there in The Rings
The van comes to the car wherever it has come to rest — your own drive, beside Ingleby Barwick Town Council, or outside Myton Park Primary School. Both the work and our price rest on three replies — which fluid, what amount, and whether it has run — so our technicians ask. You get that quote by phone, before anybody heads out.
Then that tank is drained and the fuel system rinsed thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. Filter cleaned or, if it must be, swapped; fresh diesel in; and then a test of the vehicle. We don't leave until it has been fired up and is running properly.
With pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your engine has not run take about half an hour once our engineers are there. 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 is included with plenty of policies.
About The Rings and where it is
The Rings is a suburban area situated on the riverside in North Yorkshire, with an elevation of 32 metres. The Rings lies near several neighbouring communities, including Broom Hill, Roundhill Village, and Ingleby Barwick. The Rings is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting the area's residential nature. The Rings is located approximately 20.5 miles from Durham and 214.1 miles from London.
AdBlue drains around The Rings and across North Yorkshire
Roundhill Village and Ingleby Barwick are among the places near The Rings, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, over TS postcodes. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting TS17 5.
The car doesn't need to move. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street close to The Rings Community Hub, a lay-by on the way to Hazeldene Park, a drive. Guessing doesn't help behind IB Leisure, close to a border, or anywhere hard to describe; phone and check.
The Rings drivers: the short version
Read the cap before you pour. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it where it is, anywhere around North Yorkshire: switch it off then ring 0333 366 0103.