Tower Hill: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and the ignition off and call 0333 366 0103. In Tower Hill, finding it before your motor runs usually leaves draining and a thorough flush where it stands. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Diesel feeds the motor — but plenty of newer diesels driven about Tower Hill and Melling Mount hold another liquid as well. The exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the gas to clean them, from a separate tank.
Each tank comes with one filler of its own. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in at every filling station call-out, again and again. Rarely filled, AdBlue usually goes in out of a bottle, poured by a driver who must stop and think what filler it needs. That gap is where the error lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank occur around Tower Hill?
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from your car, and letting it run out means limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Headbolt Lane, perhaps at The Premier on the way home after work.
Then your car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Third, the bottle fits: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in as readily, and once the pour starts, nothing halts it. Whether it takes place in Northwood or the middle of Tower Hill, it's the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Waddicar or a forecourt in Tower Hill, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually is not. Read it instead of going by position.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Check for it.
- The handbook says where it is if your filler is not next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Headbolt Lane, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
Wherever around Merseyside the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Turn off once parked — level ground, engine off, and never rushed beside Fallowfield 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.
- The two under one flap? Then make sure the lid on your diesel filler is still shut ahead of raising the bottle.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start your car: 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 your diesel side, stop there. Never go on to step five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Tower Hill?
Don't start the motor: that is how the short order of things begins. The fuel pump starts on many diesels as soon as the ignition goes on — and so keep it off. Filling up with diesel will not dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the base of the tank, right where the fuel is taken from.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it's the Morrisons or the another forecourt nearby, ask the staff to help push the vehicle away from the petrol pump. On your own drive around Tower Hill? Then your car remains put.
When the engine has been run already, pull over safely and turn the vehicle off. The next exit is where to leave if you're on the M57, under 3 miles from Tower Hill. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Liverpool, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Tower Hill.
When our technicians arrive in Tower Hill, what happens?
Wherever your car came to rest, whether outside Ravenscroft Community Primary School, beside St Andrew or on your own drive, the van travels to it. Both the work and the price rest on three answers — which liquid, which amount, and whether it's run — so we ask. The price is given over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
After that: a drain, then a full flush of the entire system. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and none of that clears out unaided. That is why it matters more. The filter cleaned or, if it must be, swapped; clean diesel in; and then a check of the vehicle. We do not go until it has been started and is running smoothly.
If the engine has not 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. Nothing upfront; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. Misfuelling cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Tower Hill, briefly
Tower Hill is a suburban area in Merseyside, situated near the River Alt and close to the city of Liverpool. Tower Hill has a mix of semi-detached housing and local amenities, with nearby Northwood and Kirkby providing additional services. Tower Hill sits at an elevation of 33 metres, with the surrounding landscape influenced by its riverside setting. Tower Hill is located approximately 6.9 miles from Liverpool city centre, making it a commuter-friendly location.
Tower Hill and Merseyside: AdBlue drains across the area
As a residential suburb, Tower Hill shares its vans surrounding places — Kirkby, Kirkby Park — all the way through L postcodes and the surrounding area around them. Quickest of all: quote a L33 1 postcode for the van.
There's no need to shift the vehicle. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street near St Mark's Church, a lay-by on the way to Tower Hill Park, a drive. Awkward to explain, like the back of St Mary's Church? By a border? Checking is better than assuming, so ring.
For Tower Hill motorists, the short version
Always, the cap; after that, the pour. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave the vehicle off and ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it waits, anywhere around Merseyside.