How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Tingley
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and your ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it's generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Tingley. The rest of this page explains why it happens and how to ensure it doesn't — useful if you are reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Many modern diesels on the roads about Tingley and Woodkirk carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank comes with one filler of its own. Other motors put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others have both side by side behind one flap. Diesel goes in at each filling station visit, again and again. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less regularly, normally from a bottle, and usually by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs in Tingley
Carelessness seldom causes it. Instead is three things lining up at once.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, your vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Poppleton Rise before work, or in the car park outside The New Scarborough on the way home.
The old car's cap is where the hand reaches — but a hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That is the second thing: a new vehicle.
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. Black Gates or the middle of Tingley: it takes the same few seconds either way.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Whether a Tingley forecourt or a drive over in West Ardsley, spend a couple of seconds on these before any goes in.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Trust the cap, not its position.
- Many motors give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many motors say there which fuel goes where.
- Can't see it beside your diesel inlet? Then check below the bonnet or in the boot — the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Morley, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in West Yorkshire that is.
- Switch off after you park — flat ground, engine off, and never in a rush beside Jakeman Court on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Find at the second or third stage that AdBlue went in the diesel filler? That is where you stop. Don't go on to stage five.
Tingley: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Brief list, then. First: the engine stays off. Keep the ignition off too, since on many diesels it by itself starts your fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is pulled from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it is the Esso or the BP, ask the staff to help push the car away from the pump. If you're on your own drive in Tingley, leave the vehicle where it is.
Where the motor has been run already, pull over safely then turn the car off. Tingley lies under a mile from the M62; on it, use the first junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Wakefield, under 5 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Tingley.
What takes place when our engineers get there in Tingley
Anywhere the car came to rest, be it by Blackgates Primary Academy, near Tingley Community Centre & Library or at home, the van travels to it. What fluid went in, the amount, and if it ran: our engineers ask because the answers decide the work and price. On the call itself, you hear our price — ahead of anything else.
Draining that tank comes next, then a thorough flush of the fuel system. With AdBlue that matters 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. After the filter is flushed — or renewed, where required — fresh diesel goes in, and then the car gets tested. We do not leave until it has been started and is running correctly.
Unstarted cars usually mean a half-hour visit after arrival. The kit is fine on a busy forecourt, and quiet enough for a residential street late at night. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents an insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. While we travel, take a look at your policy; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Tingley and where it is
Tingley is a suburban area in West Yorkshire, situated near the River Calder and close to the city of Wakefield. Tingley sits at an elevation of 141 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation in the area. Tingley is located near several other local places, including Black Gates, Westerton, and Upper Green, and is approximately 165 miles north of London. Tingley has a population of around 4672 residents.
AdBlue drains in Tingley and across West Yorkshire
Tingley is a residential suburb, and the teams that cover it also work the towns near it, Westerton and Upper Green among them, across the WF postcode area. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting WF3 1.
The vehicle remains where it is. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Haigh Wood, a side street near Church Of The Nazarene: we drain the car where it is. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Tingley Methodist Church, ring and ask rather than guessing.
In short, for Tingley drivers
Always, the cap; then, the tip. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Leave the vehicle switched off then ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, across West Yorkshire.