AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Threshfield: Why It Happens and How to Stop It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and your ignition off and call 0333 366 0103. Usually, when the engine hasn't run, it's drained and thoroughly cleaned where your car sits in Threshfield. The remainder of this page explains why it occurs and how to ensure it doesn't — handy if you're reading before it has happened.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Plenty of newer diesels around Grassington, as well as Threshfield, carry on two liquids; your engine takes just your diesel. The exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the fumes to clean them, from its own tank.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, side by side: that's the layout on a lot of motors. On others, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. At the pump, the diesel side gets filled constantly. Far less often, the AdBlue side gets topped up — normally from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. The mistake lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place around Threshfield
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
Haste comes from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a drive off B6160, or heading home in the car park at Old Hall Inn.
Then the vehicle is strange. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand hits for the cap it would have 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 once it has started. Linton or the heart of Threshfield: it takes the same few seconds either way.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Long Ashes or a forecourt in Threshfield, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually isn't. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Check inside your fuel flap: plenty of vehicles have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says which it lives if the filler is not next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at Gargrave, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
When the light comes on, wherever in North Yorkshire, follow this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of B6265, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park and switch off first.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" aloud as unscrewing it. It sounds silly. It does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. When the two sit under a flap, make sure it's shut before lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start your car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Do not go on to step five.
Threshfield: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Short list, then. Top of it: the motor stays unstarted. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels the moment the ignition is switched on — so leave it off. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is pulled from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
At a forecourt — Shell, another forecourt nearby or another — the staff will normally help push the car clear, if you ask. At home in Threshfield? Then the car stays where it is.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Threshfield sits under 25 miles from the M65; on it, use the next exit. A short hop across Threshfield is a smaller job than a run towards Ripon, under 25 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
When we get there in Threshfield, what occurs?
Wherever the vehicle came to rest, whether by Threshfield Primary School, near Threshfield Methodist Chapel or at home, the van comes to it. Both the work and our quote rest on three answers — which fluid, what amount, and if it has run — so we ask. The quote is given on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
Then your tank is cleared and your system rinsed thoroughly. With AdBlue that counts 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. A test is at the end: before that, clean diesel goes in, and the fuel filter is flushed or replaced as needed. Before we leave, our engineers fire it up and make sure that it is running properly.
Unstarted vehicles mostly need a half-hour job from the moment we arrive. The kit is safe on a live filling station, and hushed enough for a residential street late at night. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents an insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Threshfield and where it is
Threshfield is a village situated in North Yorkshire, on the banks of a river at an elevation of 194 metres. Threshfield lies approximately 20 miles from Ripon and 193 miles from London, with nearby villages including Linton and Skirethorns. Threshfield has a population of around 631 people, predominantly living in terraced housing. Threshfield is surrounded by scenic countryside, with Thorpe Fell View nearby.
Threshfield and North Yorkshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Threshfield is a village, and the vans that cover it also work the places around it, Skirethorns and Thorpe Fell View among them, across the BD postcode area. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting BD23 5.
No need to shift the vehicle. The drain happens right there, whether a driveway, a road by St Margaret Clitherow's Catholic Church, or a lay-by towards Chester Wood. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you are near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Calvert Lathe.
For Threshfield motorists, the short version
Pour no AdBlue till you have read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere around North Yorkshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless — so leave the vehicle off and ring 0333 366 0103.