Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Tummer Hill: Why It Occurs
Pause here for a moment when your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Tummer Hill. Reading before the event? In that case what follows covers why it comes about and how to stop it ever happening.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
No single liquid but two: that's how plenty of newer diesels around Tummer Hill and Barrow Island carry, with diesel for the motor. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust stream to clean it.
There's a filler for every tank. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled at every filling station call-out, again and again. The AdBlue side is filled far less often, normally from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the mistake lives.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank occur around Tummer Hill?
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the car, and running out leads to limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Long Bank, perhaps outside The Castle House Hotel on the way home that evening.
Then, your hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old vehicle — since a hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't.
Lastly, the bottle goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in as easily, and after the tip starts, no part halts it. It's a few seconds, whether in Water Garth Nook or bang in the heart of Tummer Hill.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
A few seconds is all these take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a drive in Barrow-in-Furness or a forecourt in Tummer Hill.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Open the filler flap and check for a label — many cars mark which belongs in which inlet just there.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by your diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Ask when you pick up a hire car or fleet car — from Barrow-In-Furness's car park, say — rather than once the light appears.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
On the day the light appears — anywhere you are in Cumbria — a simple routine to follow.
- Turn off after you park — level ground, motor off, and never in a rush beside Oak Head Road 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.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the vehicle on.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Find at stage two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? So stop just there. Leave out step five altogether.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Tummer Hill already?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your motor. Do not switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is drawn from.
On a forecourt — Tesco, Morrisons or another — the attendants will normally help push your car clear, if you ask. Your own driveway in Tummer Hill is where it stays.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your motor has already run. The next exit is the place to come off when you are on the M6, under 25 miles from Tummer Hill. Mileage counts — a short hop across Tummer Hill is a smaller job than heading under 25 miles to Lancaster — so tell us roughly how far it went.
Tummer Hill: what happens when our technicians turn up
Our technicians come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside South Walney Junior School, near Spring Mount Community Hall or on your own drive. The replies decide this work and the price, and so our technicians ask what was put in, about how much, and whether it has run. That quote is given over the phone, before any van leaves.
Then your tank is cleared and the system rinsed thoroughly. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own. A test is at the end: before that, fresh diesel is added, and the filter is flushed or changed if necessary. Before we go, our technicians start it and confirm that it is running correctly.
Using pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the engine has not run take about half an hour after our engineers arrive. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. While we travel, take a look at your insurance documents; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Tummer Hill and where it is
Tummer Hill is a suburban area located on the coast of Cumbria, with an elevation of 16 metres above sea level. Tummer Hill sits near the shores of Morecambe Bay, close to the nearby settlements of Water Garth Nook and Vickerstown. Tummer Hill is characterized by its predominantly terraced housing stock, reflecting the area's history of residential development. Tummer Hill is situated approximately 18 miles from Lancaster, the nearest city.
AdBlue drains across Cumbria, Tummer Hill included
Vickerstown and North Walney are among the towns around Tummer Hill, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, over LA postcodes. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting LA14 3.
Shifting your car isn't necessary. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to the green space at the edge of the village, a side street near St Columba's Church: our technicians drain the vehicle where it is. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of St Mary's Centre, ring and ask rather than assuming.
For Tummer Hill motorists, the short version
First, the cap; then, the tip. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Leave it off then ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, across Cumbria.