How It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Top-o-th Hill
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case put this page down for now, leave your ignition and motor off, then ring 0333 366 0103. In Top-o-th Hill, finding it before your engine runs usually leaves draining and a thorough flush where it stands. The rest of this page covers why it takes place and how to make sure it does not — useful if you are reading ahead of time.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Many current diesels on the roads about Top-o-th Hill and Greave carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. The exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the fumes to clean it, from a separate tank.
There is a filler on each tank. Some motors keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others have both side by side under one flap. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. Much less frequently, the AdBlue side gets filled — mostly from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. Mistakes happen in the gap between the two.
Top-o-th Hill: how AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the car goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Guywood Lane before work, or in the car park outside Platform One on the way home.
Then, the hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old car — because a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
Lastly, the spout fits: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in just as easily, and once the pour starts, nothing halts it. Romiley or the middle of Top-o-th Hill: it takes the same few seconds either way.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Burymewick or a forecourt in Top-o-th Hill, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually isn't. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- The size. On plenty of cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Check for it.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler sits if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Romiley, 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 across Greater Manchester that is.
- Stop on level, engine off, with time to spare — not rushing on the side of Hill Top.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the vehicle on.
- Finish when your tank fills or the bottle is empty; until then, tip slowly through the own spout.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Don't go on to stage five.
Top-o-th Hill: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
The short order of things, starting with not starting the engine. Keep the ignition off too, since on many diesels switching it on alone runs your pump. Thinning it with more diesel fails, because AdBlue settles to the base rather than blending — and that's where the fuel is pulled from.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it's the Esso or the Morrisons, ask the attendants to help roll your car away from the pump. Your own driveway around Top-o-th Hill is where it stays.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. On the M60, under 3 miles from Top-o-th Hill, that means the next exit. Mileage counts — a short hop across Top-o-th Hill makes a smaller job than heading under 10 miles to Manchester — so say roughly how far it went.
What happens when we turn up in Top-o-th Hill
Our technicians come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Romiley Primary School, close to Romiley Methodist Church or on your own drive. Both the work and the quote depend on three replies — which liquid, which quantity, and if it's run — so our technicians ask. Nobody sets off until you have heard our quote by phone.
Your system is then cleaned thoroughly, after your tank is emptied. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and none of that washes out by itself. Hence it counts more. Filter flushed or, if needed, replaced; clean diesel in; and then a check of the car. After that we start the engine and check it runs correctly before leaving.
With pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the motor hasn't run need roughly half an hour after our technicians are there. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork an insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. It is worth looking at your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Top-o-th Hill
Top-o-th Hill is a suburban area in Greater Manchester, situated near the riverside and approximately 7.6 miles from Manchester. Top-o-th Hill has a population of around 3617 people and is characterised by semi-detached housing. Top-o-th Hill sits at an elevation of 145 metres, overlooking the surrounding landscape. Top-o-th Hill is close to nearby places such as Romiley, Lane Ends, and Tang.
AdBlue drains in Top-o-th Hill and across Greater Manchester
Lane Ends and Tang are among the places near Top-o-th Hill, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, over SK postcodes. Quote a postcode that starts SK6 4, and the van arrives quickest.
Shifting your car is not necessary. Anywhere it stands — near The Forum, in a lay-by en route to Romiley Park, at home — that is where it is cleared. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of St. Chads, ring and ask rather than guessing.
In short, for Top-o-th Hill people
First, the cap; after that, the pour. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway, leave it off then call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it waits, anywhere around Greater Manchester.