How It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Tyersal Gate
Keep the engine and ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Usually, when your engine has not run, it's emptied and thoroughly cleaned where your vehicle sits in Tyersal Gate. The remainder of this page explains why it happens and how to ensure it does not — handy if you are reading before it has happened.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Diesel feeds the engine — but many modern diesels seen around Tyersal Gate and Holme Wood carry another liquid too. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Different tanks, different fillers. Plenty of vehicles share a single flap for the two, whereas some put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is topped up at the pump all the time. The AdBlue side is topped up far less often, normally from a bottle, and usually by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. The slip lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank happens around Tyersal Gate
Carelessness seldom causes it. What does is three things lining up at once.
On a driveway off Eversley Drive before work, or in the car park at Holme Social Club on the way home: that is where the hurried top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low the car tells you, and once it's gone, limp mode follows.
Next, the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old vehicle — since a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
A spout-topped bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, once begun, keeps on. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Tyersal Gate or out in Holme.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Swain Green or a forecourt around Tyersal Gate, check these. They take a few seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally isn't. Read it instead of going by position.
- The size. On plenty of cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Check inside your fuel flap: plenty of motors have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows which it is when your filler isn't next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at New Pudsey.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
Anywhere around West Yorkshire the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Turn off after you park — flat ground, engine off, and not rushed by Farway on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- Both under one flap? So make sure the lid on your diesel filler is still shut ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the vehicle, close the cap and check again that your diesel cap never opened off.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Step five stays out.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Tyersal Gate?
The short order of things, beginning with not starting your engine. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch the vehicle on. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
At a forecourt — the nearest petrol station, Esso or any other — the staff will normally help push your car clear, when you ask. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway around Tyersal Gate.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your engine has already run. Leave the M606 — under 3 miles out of Tyersal Gate — at the next exit. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Bradford, under 3 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Tyersal Gate.
When our technicians arrive in Tyersal Gate, what happens?
Our van reaches the vehicle anywhere it stopped — your own driveway, beside St Christopher's Church, Holme Wood, or outside Carrwood Primary School. Both the work and our quote rest on three replies — what liquid, which amount, and whether it has run — so we ask. That price is given over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
Your system is then rinsed thoroughly, after the tank is drained. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own. A test is at the end: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and the filter is flushed or changed if necessary. Before we go, our technicians fire it up and confirm that it's running correctly.
Using pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the engine hasn't run take about half an hour once we arrive. The insurer will ask for an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours once this job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Tyersal Gate itself
Tyersal Gate is a suburban area situated near the city of Bradford in West Yorkshire, with a mix of semi-detached housing and a population of around 3479 residents. Tyersal Gate lies close to the riverside, at an elevation of 189 metres, and is near other local places such as Holme and Tyersal. Tyersal Gate is located approximately 2.1 miles from Bradford city centre, making it a convenient residential area for those working in the city. Tyersal Gate is also part of the wider Yorkshire and the Humber region, with London around 170.5 miles to the south.
AdBlue drains across West Yorkshire, Tyersal Gate included
Tyersal Gate is a residential suburb, and the teams that cover it also work the towns near it, Tyersal and Cutler Heights among them, across the BD postcode area. Quickest of all: give a BD4 0 postcode for our van.
Shifting the car is not necessary. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street near Holmewood Activity Centre, a lay-by on the way to Valley Natural Play Park, a driveway. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of St Mary's Church, ring and ask rather than guessing.
In short, for Tyersal Gate people
Read the cap before you tip. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave it off and phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it sits, anywhere around West Yorkshire.