Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Thwaite Gate: Why It Occurs
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and the ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. Normally, if the engine hasn't run, it is emptied and fully purged where your vehicle is around Thwaite Gate. Nothing happened yet? Below, the rest of the page covers the reasons it takes place and the how to prevent it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Diesel goes to the engine — yet plenty of newer diesels seen around Thwaite Gate and Hunslet carry a second fluid too. The exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the fumes to fresh it, from its own tank.
Different tanks, separate fillers. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Topping up your diesel side at the pump goes on all the time. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less frequently. The mistake grows in that gap between them.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Thwaite Gate: how it happens
Carelessness seldom causes it. Instead is three things coming up together.
On a drive off Severn Way before work, or in the car park at The Crooked Clock heading home: that is where the rushed top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low the car warns you, and once it's gone, limp mode follows.
Then the vehicle is strange. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
No part stops the tip once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Atkinson Hill or the heart of Thwaite Gate: it is the same few seconds in both.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Look at these first, at a forecourt in Thwaite Gate or a driveway out in Stourton. Seconds, no more.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Trust the cap, not its position.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- Cannot find it beside the diesel inlet? Then look below the bonnet or in the boot — the handbook will say which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Ask as you collect a rental or fleet car — at Leeds's car park, perhaps — not when the light appears.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in West Yorkshire that is.
- Switch off after you park — level ground, engine off, and never rushed beside Low Road at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- The two under one flap? Then confirm the lid on your diesel filler is still shut ahead of raising the bottle.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Before you start the car, close the cap and check a second time that your diesel cap never came off.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Stage five stays off limits.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Thwaite Gate?
Do not start your engine: that's how the short order of things begins. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels as soon as your ignition is switched on — and so keep it off. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it's the Shell or the BP, ask the staff to help push the car away from the petrol pump. At home in Thwaite Gate? Then the vehicle stays where it is.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Thwaite Gate lies under a mile from the M621; there, take the next exit. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Thwaite Gate is smaller work than a run of under 3 miles to Leeds, and so say.
Our arrival around Thwaite Gate, and what takes place next
Wherever the vehicle came to rest, whether outside Low Road Primary School, beside Hunslet Nazarene Church or on your own drive, our van comes to it. Which fluid went in, the amount, and if it ran: our technicians ask since those replies decide both work and quote. That quote comes on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
After that: draining, then a thorough flush of the whole system. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. We don't go until it has been started and is running smoothly.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour once our engineers get there, provided the engine hasn't run — and the pumps our engineers use are safe on a busy forecourt yet quiet after dark beside a house. Your insurer usually wants the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both once this job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. While we travel, have a look at your policy; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Thwaite Gate, briefly
Thwaite Gate is a suburban area in West Yorkshire, situated near the River Aire and close to the city centre of Leeds. Thwaite Gate has a mix of terraced housing and is located at a relatively low elevation of 28 metres, with nearby areas including Atkinson Hill and Knowsthorpe. Thwaite Gate is part of the larger Leeds urban area, with the city's amenities and services within easy reach. Thwaite Gate is home to a population of around 2302 people, according to recent estimates.
AdBlue drains across West Yorkshire, Thwaite Gate included
Throughout LS postcodes, our vans covering Thwaite Gate — a residential suburb — work the nearby places too, Woodhouse Hill and Knowsthorpe included. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting LS10 1.
Your car does not need to move. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near Stourton War Memorial, a lay-by on the way to Hunslet Green, a drive. Guessing doesn't help behind Leeds and Wakefield Trust Toll House, close to a border, or anywhere awkward to describe; phone and ask.
For Thwaite Gate drivers, the short version
Read the cap before you pour. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it waits, anywhere in West Yorkshire.