Thornton Lodge: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and your ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, carried out right where the car stands around Thornton Lodge, is normally what it takes when found before your motor runs. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it does not.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Many modern diesels around Primrose Hill, like those in Thornton Lodge, run on two liquids; the motor gets only your 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 cars 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 pump, the diesel side gets filled constantly. The AdBlue side is topped up far less often, usually from a bottle, and usually by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the mistake lives.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank happen in Thornton Lodge?
Carelessness rarely causes it. Instead is three things coming up together.
On a driveway off Saint Thomas Road before work, or in the car park at The Bridge heading home: that is where the hurried top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low your car warns you, and once it is empty, limp mode kicks in.
The old car's cap is where the hand goes — yet a rental car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That is a second factor: an unfamiliar vehicle.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the tip after it has started. It's seconds, whether out in Rashcliffe or right in the centre of Thornton Lodge.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Check these before pouring, at a forecourt around Thornton Lodge or a drive over in Paddock. A few seconds, no more.
- Read the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue ones are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually aren't.
- On plenty of vehicles, size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Open the flap and check for a label — many motors mark which goes in which filler right there.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by your diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before knows. Ask as you pick up a hire car or fleet car — at Lockwood's car park, say — not when the warning appears.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around West Yorkshire that is.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Manchester Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where the two share a flap, confirm it's closed before the bottle comes up.
- Stop when your tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; before that, tip gently using its built-in spout.
- Shut the cap, and check once more — confirm the diesel filler remained closed throughout. After that, start the vehicle.
Discover during the second or third step that AdBlue went into the diesel tank? That is where you stop. Don't go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Thornton Lodge?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your engine. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels as soon as the ignition is switched on — and so leave it off. Topping up with diesel will not weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the bottom of that tank, right where fuel is taken from.
At a forecourt — Esso, Shell or any other — the staff will usually help push the car clear, when you ask. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway in Thornton Lodge.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the engine has already run. Leave the M62 — under 3 miles out of Thornton Lodge — at the next exit. A short hop across Thornton Lodge is a smaller job than a run towards Bradford, under 15 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
What happens when our technicians arrive in Thornton Lodge
Outside Spring Grove Junior Infant and Nursery School, close to Jamia Masjid Noor or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, our technicians come to it. Which fluid got in, the amount, and whether it ran: our engineers ask since the answers decide both work and quote. On the call itself, you hear the price — before dispatch.
Next: a drain, then a thorough flush of the whole system. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. Filter flushed or, where needed, swapped; clean 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 once our engineers arrive, provided your motor has not run — and the pumps we use are fine on a live forecourt and quiet after dark beside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is included in many insurance policies — and so use the wait to look at yours.
About Thornton Lodge
Thornton Lodge is a suburban area in West Yorkshire, situated near the River Calder at an elevation of around 80 metres. Thornton Lodge lies approximately 10.5 miles from Bradford and is surrounded by nearby places such as Rashcliffe, Folly Hall, and Yews Hill. Thornton Lodge has a population of around 9250 people and is characterised by predominantly terraced housing.
AdBlue drains round Thornton Lodge, and West Yorkshire beyond
Folly Hall and Yews Hill are among the places near Thornton Lodge, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, over HD postcodes. Quote a postcode beginning HD1 3, and our van arrives fastest.
There's no need to move your car. Wherever it stands — beside St Thomas, on a lay-by en route to T P Woods, on a drive — that's where it gets emptied. Tricky to pin down, like the back of Cathedral House? Close to a county line? Checking is better than guessing, and so ring.
In short, for Thornton Lodge people
First, the cap; after that, the pour. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless, leave it off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it waits, anywhere across West Yorkshire.