Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Throckley: Why It Occurs
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case set this page aside a moment, leave your ignition and engine off, and call 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, carried out right where your car sits in Throckley, is normally all it takes when caught before your motor runs. Here in advance? In that case the rest covers how it happens and how to prevent it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Diesel goes to the motor — but many current diesels seen round Throckley and North Walbottle carry a second fluid as well. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust stream and cleans it.
There's a filler on every tank. Under one flap, side by side: that is the layout on a lot of cars. On others, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. Diesel gets filled on each filling station call-out, week in, week out. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less commonly. That gap is where the mistake lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Throckley: how it takes place
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Newburn Road before work, or in the car park outside Throckley Union Jack Social Club on the way home.
The old car's cap is where your hand reaches — but a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That is the second factor: a new car.
Nothing halts the tip after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It takes seconds, be it out in Bank Top or bang in the heart of Throckley.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
A few seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Heddon-on-the-Wall or a forecourt around Throckley.
- Position can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps are often blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally do not.
- Plenty of motors fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Look for it.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler is if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Whoever had it before knows. Ask as you collect a hire car or company car — from Blaydon's car park, perhaps — not once the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
On the day the warning comes on — anywhere it is around Tyne and Wear — a simple routine to use.
- Switch off once parked — flat ground, engine off, and never in a rush beside Back Victoria Terrace at the roadside.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew it. It sounds silly. It works.
- Both behind one flap? So make sure the cap on the diesel side stays closed before raising the bottle.
- Finish when the tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; before that, tip gently using its built-in spout.
- Before you start your car, shut the cap and look again that your diesel cap never came off.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Do not go on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Throckley already?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the motor. The fuel pump runs on many diesels as soon as your ignition goes on — so keep it off. Thinning it with more diesel won't work, since AdBlue sinks to the base rather than mixing — and that's where your fuel is pulled from.
The staff at Shell, Gulf or any forecourt will normally help pushing the vehicle away if asked. If you're on your own drive around Throckley, leave the car where it sits.
Where the motor has been run already, stop safely then switch it off. Throckley lies under 10 miles from the Central Motorway East; on it, use the first junction. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Throckley is less work than a trip of under 10 miles towards Newcastle upon Tyne, and so say.
Throckley: what happens when our technicians get there
Outside Throckley Primary School, near Throckley War Memorial or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, we come to it. Our engineers ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether it's run, since those replies determine this work and our price. No one sets off until you have had our quote by phone.
Emptying the tank comes next, then a thorough flush of the system. 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 that matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Before we leave, we start the car and make sure that it's running smoothly.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour once we get there, as long as your engine has not run — and the pumps we use are safe on a busy forecourt yet quiet at night beside a house. The insurer usually wants an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. Before we get there, have a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Throckley
Throckley is a village in Tyne and Wear, situated on the banks of the River Tyne at an elevation of 77 metres. Throckley lies approximately 5.8 miles west of Newcastle upon Tyne, near the settlements of Bank Top, Walbottle, and Newburn. Throckley has a population of around 3189 residents, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type in the area. Throckley is located about 250.2 miles north of London, in the North East region of England.
AdBlue drains about Throckley, and Tyne and Wear beyond
Being a village, Throckley has the same vans as nearby places — Walbottle, Newburn — all the way through NE postcodes and the wider area beyond. Fastest of all: give a NE15 9 postcode to the van.
The car remains where it is. Draining happens right there, be it a driveway, a road by Saint Mary the Virgin Throckley, or a lay-by on the way to Throckley Recreation Ground. Assuming doesn't help behind Throckley Community Hall, close to a border, or anywhere awkward to describe; ring and ask.
Throckley people: the short version
First, the cap; then, the pour. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave the car off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it waits, anywhere around Tyne and Wear.