Townhead: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Keep the motor and ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. A drain plus a full flush, carried out just where the car stands around Townhead, is normally all it needs when found before the motor runs. Reading in advance? In that case what follows explains why it comes about and how to stop it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
No single fluid but two: that's what plenty of modern diesels near Townhead and Kirkborough carry, with diesel feeding your motor. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust stream and cleans it.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the arrangement on many motors. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in your boot instead. Topping up your diesel side at the pump happens constantly. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less regularly. The mistake lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank happens around Townhead
It's rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Hurry comes from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a driveway off Main Street, or on the way home in the car park at The Old Mill Inn.
New-to-you motors are next, too. Rentals, new motors and company motors place their fillers in new places, and the hand reaches for the cap used on the old one.
A spouted bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, once started, carries on. Dearham or the middle of Townhead: it takes the same few seconds either way.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Check these before pouring, on a forecourt around Townhead or a driveway out in Birkby. Seconds, that's all.
- Read the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue ones are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally are not.
- The size. On many cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Lift the filler flap and check for a label — plenty of motors mark what belongs in each filler right there.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler sits if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- The previous driver will know. Ask as you pick up a hire car or company car — from Maryport's car park, say — rather than when the warning appears.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
For the day the light appears — wherever it is across Cumbria — a simple routine to follow.
- Pull in somewhere level, engine off, with time to spare — not rushing on the side of Central Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" aloud as unscrewing it. It sounds daft. It does the trick.
- The two behind one flap? So confirm the lid on your diesel filler stays closed ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the car, close the cap and look a second time that your diesel cap never opened off.
Find at the second or third step that the bottle went in the diesel tank? That's where you stop. Never carry on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Townhead?
Brief order, then. Top of it: your engine stays off. Leave the ignition off as well, since on plenty of diesels switching it on by itself starts the fuel pump. Diluting it with extra diesel won't work, since AdBlue settles to the base rather than mixing — and that is where the fuel is drawn from.
Ask the attendants to help push the vehicle away from the pump if you are at a forecourt — the Essex Garage, the Shell or anywhere else. If you are on your own driveway around Townhead, leave the car where it is.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. The next junction is where to come off when you are on the M6, under 25 miles from Townhead. Mileage counts — a quick hop across Townhead makes a smaller job than heading under 25 miles to Carlisle — so say roughly how far it went.
Townhead: what takes place when our engineers get there
We come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Dearham Primary School, near Dearham Village Hall or on your own drive. What liquid got in, the amount, and if it ran: our engineers ask because the answers set both work and quote. You get that price on the phone, before anyone sets off.
Then the tank is cleared and the system cleaned thoroughly. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and neither clears away by itself. That is why it matters more. Filter flushed or, where it must be, replaced; fresh diesel in; and then a check of your vehicle. We don't go until it has been fired up and is running smoothly.
If your engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. No money upfront; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. While we travel, have a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Townhead and where it is
Townhead is a suburban area located on the coast of Cumbria, with an elevation of around 60 metres. Townhead sits near the towns of Dearham and Workington, and is close to other nearby places such as Row Brow and Harker Marsh. Townhead has a population of approximately 1341 people, and its predominant housing stock consists of semi-detached homes. Townhead is situated about 23.8 miles from Carlisle, the nearest city.
AdBlue drains across Cumbria, Townhead included
As a residential suburb, Townhead has the same vans as surrounding areas — Row Brow, Harker Marsh — right across CA postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. A postcode starting CA15 7 gets the van to you fastest.
The vehicle remains where it is. Anywhere it sits — beside St Mungo's, on a lay-by heading to Dam Wood, at home — that's where it gets cleared. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Many Norman & Viking Artefacts? Close to a county line? Asking beats assuming, and so ring.
In short, for Townhead drivers
Tip no AdBlue till you've read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Keep the car switched off and call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, throughout Cumbria.