Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Thurcaston: Why It Occurs
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and the ignition off and call 0333 366 0103. Around Thurcaston, catching it before your motor runs normally leaves draining and a full flush where it stands. Reading before the event? In that case what follows covers why it comes about and how to stop it ever happening.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Many current diesels on the roads round Thurcaston and Mowmacre Hill carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. Its own tank holds it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, and there a spray treats the gas.
There is a filler for every tank. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the arrangement on many vehicles. On others, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. At the petrol pump, your diesel side gets filled all the time. Seldom filled, AdBlue normally goes in from a bottle, tipped by someone who must stop and think what filler to use. It's in that gap that the error happens.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen in Thurcaston?
It is seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from the vehicle, and running dry leads to limp mode — so a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Rectory Lane, perhaps outside The Wheatsheaf on the way home after work.
Then the car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand reaches 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, and so nothing stops the tip once it has started. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Thurcaston or out in Cropston.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Be it a Thurcaston forecourt or a driveway over in Wanlip, take a couple of seconds over these before anything is poured in.
- Position misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually do not.
- On plenty of cars, the size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Lift the flap and look for a label — plenty of motors mark which goes in each inlet just there.
- Cannot see it next to your diesel inlet? In that case look below the bonnet or inside the boot — the owner's manual says which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Syston.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
On the day the light comes on — wherever you are in Leicestershire — a simple routine to follow.
- Switch off once parked — flat ground, engine off, and never rushed beside Leicester Road on the verge.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — once 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 — then leave it on.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, and check once more — making sure the diesel cap remained shut throughout. After that, start the car.
Discover during the second or third step that AdBlue went into the diesel filler? That is where you stop. Don't carry on to step five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Thurcaston already?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your motor. Do not switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Diluting it with extra diesel won't work, since AdBlue settles to the bottom instead of mixing — and that is where your fuel is drawn from.
The staff at Shell, Tesco or another forecourt will usually lend a hand pushing the vehicle clear if you ask. At home in Thurcaston? So the car stays put.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Come off the M1 — under 5 miles out of Thurcaston — at the first junction. A short hop across Thurcaston is a smaller job than a run towards Leicester, under 5 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
Our arrival around Thurcaston, and what happens next
Outside Richard Hill Church of England Primary School, near Thurcaston Memorial Hall or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, we come to it. Which fluid got in, the amount, and if it ran: we ask since those replies set both work and quote. That price is given on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
Emptying that tank comes next, then a full flush of your system. Much more than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: the crystals build up, some metals corrode, and none of that washes out unaided, however long it is left. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. We don't go until it has been fired up and is running properly.
If your engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents your insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Misfuelling cover is included in many insurance policies — and so use the wait to check yours.
About Thurcaston, for a moment
Thurcaston is a village in Leicestershire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 66 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Thurcaston lies close to the city of Leicester, approximately 4.2 miles away, and is near other villages such as Cropston and Rothley. Thurcaston has a population of around 867 residents and is located near Rothley Plain. Thurcaston is positioned in the East Midlands region, about 92.8 miles from London.
AdBlue drains in Thurcaston and across Leicestershire
As a village, Thurcaston has the same vans as nearby areas — Rothley, Rothley Plain — right across LE postcodes and the surrounding area around them. Give a postcode that starts LE7 7, and our van arrives quickest.
Shifting your car isn't needed. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street close to All Saints Church, a lay-by on the way to Lanesborough Wood, a driveway. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of The Charnwood Forest Garden Railway.
In short, for Thurcaston drivers
Read the cap before you pour. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Keep the car switched off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, throughout Leicestershire.