Thringstone: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Stop here for a moment when your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and phone 0333 366 0103. A drain and a full flush, carried out just where the vehicle sits around Thringstone, is usually all it takes if found before your engine 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 doesn't.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Diesel feeds your motor — but plenty of current diesels seen about Thringstone and Whitwick hold a second fluid as well. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust stream and cleans it.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Many of vehicles share a single flap for the two, while others put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled on every filling station call-out, again and again. Seldom filled, AdBlue normally goes in from a bottle, poured by a driver who has to stop and think what cap it needs. It's in that gap that the error happens.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank happen in Thringstone?
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from the vehicle, and letting it run dry means limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Booth Road, perhaps outside Thringstone Members Club on the way home that evening.
Then the car is new. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, 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 pour after it has started. It takes seconds, whether in Peggs Green or right in the heart of Thringstone.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Whether a Thringstone forecourt or a drive over in Osgathorpe, spend a couple of seconds over these before anything goes in.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Trust the cap, not its position.
- The size. On plenty of cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Open the flap and look for a label — many cars mark which goes in which filler right there.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler sits if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Loughborough? Ask the person who drove it last before leaving, rather than when the light goes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
Wherever in Leicestershire the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Switch off once parked — level ground, engine stopped, and not in a rush by Glebe Road on the verge.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you have found your filler and read it.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave it on.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Find at stage two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? Then stop just there. Skip step five entirely.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Thringstone?
Brief order, then. Top of it: your engine remains unstarted. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch the vehicle on. Topping up with diesel won't thin it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of your tank, right where the fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — Shell, Morrisons or any other — the attendants will normally help push the car clear, when you ask. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive around Thringstone.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Leave the M1 — under 5 miles out of Thringstone — at the first junction. A short hop across Thringstone is a smaller job than a run towards Derby, under 15 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
Our arrival in Thringstone, and what happens next
Our technicians come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Thringstone Primary School, near St. Andrew or on your own drive. Both the work and our quote depend on three replies — what liquid, which quantity, and whether it has run — so we ask. That quote comes on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
Next: draining, then a thorough flush of the whole system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and none of it washes out by itself. That is why it counts more. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Before leaving, our technicians fire it up and make sure that it is running correctly.
Unstarted cars usually mean a half-hour visit after arrival. The equipment is safe on a busy forecourt, and quiet enough for a driveway after dark. The insurer usually wants the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Thringstone, for a moment
Thringstone is a village in Leicestershire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 113 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Thringstone lies near the villages of Peggs Green, Swannington, and Woolrooms, and is approximately 12.6 miles from Derby. Thringstone has a population of around 2613 people and is located in the East Midlands region, about 101 miles from London. Thringstone's setting on the river contributes to its scenic surroundings.
AdBlue drains around Thringstone, and Leicestershire beyond
Over LE postcodes, the teams covering Thringstone — a village — work the nearby spots too, Woolrooms and Swannington included. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting LE67 8.
Your car does not need to move. Anywhere it stands — beside Thringstone House, in a layby heading to Grace Dieu Park Cricket Club, on a drive — that's where it gets emptied. Awkward to explain, like the back of St George? By a county line? Asking beats assuming, and so ring.
For Thringstone people, the short version
Read the cap before you pour. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere in Leicestershire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — so leave it off and call 0333 366 0103.