Thorpe Edge: 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 the motor and the ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. A drain and a full flush, carried out right where your vehicle sits around Thorpe Edge, is normally all it takes when found before the engine runs. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Not one fluid but two: that is how many modern diesels near Thorpe Edge and Springfield carry, with diesel feeding your motor. 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. Under one flap, side by side: that is the layout on many cars. On others, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in your boot instead. The diesel side is topped up at the pump all the time. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less commonly. It is in that gap that the slip lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank occur around Thorpe Edge?
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, your vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Bridgegate Way before work, or in the car park outside The Victoria Hotel on the way home.
New-to-you cars are second, as well. Rentals, new cars and company motors put their fillers in new places, and the hand goes for the cap used on the old one.
Third, the bottle goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in as readily, and once the pour starts, no part stops it. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Thorpe Edge or out in Bank Top.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Ravenscliffe or a forecourt around Thorpe Edge.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally is not. Read it rather than going by position.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Open the flap and look for a label — plenty of motors mark which belongs in each inlet right there.
- The handbook says which it lives when your filler is not next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at Apperley Bridge, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
Anywhere across West Yorkshire the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Stop somewhere level, motor off, with time in hand — not hurried on the side of Dorian Close.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" out loud as unscrewing it. It sounds silly. It works.
- Both under a single flap? So make sure the lid on your diesel filler stays closed before raising the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, and check once more — confirm the diesel filler stayed closed throughout. Only then, start the car.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Leave out step five altogether.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Thorpe Edge?
Short order, then. Top of that: the engine stays unstarted. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch the vehicle on. Thinning it with extra diesel fails, since AdBlue settles to the base rather than mixing — and that's where the fuel is sucked from.
At a forecourt — Sainsbury's, Greengates Service Station or any other — the staff will normally help push the vehicle away, if you ask. At home in Thorpe Edge? Then the car stays where it is.
When the motor has been run by now, stop somewhere safe and switch the car off. The next junction is the place to come off if you are on the M606, under 5 miles from Thorpe Edge. A short hop across Thorpe Edge is a smaller job than a run towards Bradford, under 3 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
When our technicians turn up in Thorpe Edge, what occurs?
We come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Our Lady and St Brendan's Catholic Primary School, A Voluntary Academy, close to Eccleshill Pool or on your own driveway. Those answers settle this work and the price, so our technicians ask what went in, about how much, and whether it's run. The quote is given over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
The fuel system is then rinsed thoroughly, once the tank is emptied. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that counts more here than with petrol. Once the filter is cleaned — or renewed, if required — clean diesel is added, and then the car is tested. Then our technicians start it and check it runs properly before leaving.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour once our engineers get there, as long as your motor hasn't run — and the pumps our engineers use are safe on a live forecourt yet quiet at night beside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It is worth looking at your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Thorpe Edge itself
Thorpe Edge is a suburban area in West Yorkshire, situated near the River Aire and close to the city of Bradford. Thorpe Edge has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are predominant, and the area is characterized by its relatively low elevation of 156 metres. Thorpe Edge is located near several other suburban areas, including Bank Top, Greengates, and Eccleshill, and is about 2.8 miles from Bradford city centre. Thorpe Edge is also within commuting distance of larger cities, with London approximately 173.4 miles to the south.
AdBlue drains in Thorpe Edge and across West Yorkshire
Thorpe Edge is a residential suburb, and the vans that cover it also work the places near it, Greengates and Eccleshill among them, across the BD postcode area. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting BD10 8.
No need to move the car. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street close to Rockwell Community Centre, a lay-by on the way to Greengates Recreation Ground, a driveway. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of St John's, ring and ask rather than guessing.
Thorpe Edge people: the short version
Tip nothing until you've read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere around West Yorkshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — and so leave the car off then phone 0333 366 0103.