Tyne Dock: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Stop reading a minute when the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then phone 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, carried out just where the vehicle sits around Tyne Dock, is usually what it takes when found before the motor runs. Not happened yet? Further down, the page covers the reasons it takes place and the ways to prevent it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of modern diesels around West Harton, as well as Tyne Dock, carry on two fluids; the engine gets only the diesel. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, where spraying treats the gas.
Each tank has its own filler. Some vehicles keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others have both together under one flap. At the pump, your diesel side gets filled all the time. The AdBlue side is topped up far less regularly, usually from a bottle, and normally by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. It's in that gap that the mistake lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank occur in Tyne Dock?
It is seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Haste follows from the warning. The vehicle warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a driveway off Temple Town, or heading home in the car park outside Kennedy's.
New-to-you vehicles are second, too. Rentals, new vehicles and company cars put their fillers in new places, and the hand goes for the cap it used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the pour after it has started. High Shields or the middle of Tyne Dock: it is the same few seconds either way.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
A couple of seconds is all these take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a drive in Westoe or a forecourt in Tyne Dock.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- On many cars, the size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on many cars. Check for it.
- Can't find it beside the diesel inlet? Then check below the bonnet or in the boot — the handbook says where.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at Brockley Whins, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Tyne and Wear that is.
- Switch off once parked — level ground, engine stopped, and not in a rush by The Captains Row at the roadside.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew it. It sounds silly. It works.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where both sit under a flap, confirm it is shut before lifting the bottle.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, and look once more — making sure the diesel cap remained closed the whole time. After that, start the car.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Don't carry on to stage five.
Tyne Dock: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Don't start your motor: that is how the short order of things begins. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch it on. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is sucked from.
Ask the attendants to help roll your car clear of the petrol pump if you're on a forecourt — the Esso, the BP or somewhere else. Your own drive around Tyne Dock is the place it stays.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Tyne Dock sits under 5 miles from the A194(M); on it, use the first exit. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Sunderland, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Tyne Dock.
Tyne Dock: what happens when our engineers turn up
Our van reaches the car wherever it has come to rest — your own drive, beside The CustomSpace, or outside Stanhope Primary School. What liquid was put in, the quantity, and if it ran: our technicians ask since those replies decide the work and quote. On the phone call itself, you hear our quote — before anything else.
After that: draining, then a full flush of the whole system. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own. Testing is last: before that, clean diesel is added, and the filter is flushed or replaced if necessary. After that our technicians fire it up and check it runs properly before leaving.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour after our technicians get there, as long as your motor has not run — and the pumps our engineers use are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet at night beside a house. No money upfront; you settle up on the day. At the end, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Before we get there, take a look at your policy; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Tyne Dock, for a moment
Tyne Dock is a coastal suburban area in Tyne and Wear, situated near the mouth of the River Tyne and approximately 6 miles from Sunderland. Tyne Dock sits at a low elevation of around 11 metres, with its residential landscape dominated by flat-type housing. Tyne Dock is close to nearby places such as High Shields, Mill Dam, and Simonside, and is part of the larger North East England region.
AdBlue drains across Tyne and Wear, Tyne Dock included
Mill Dam and Simonside are among the places near Tyne Dock, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, over NE postcodes. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting NE33 5.
Your car does not need to shift. The drain takes place right there, be it a driveway, a street by Gurdwara Khalsa Mero Roop Hai Khas, or a lay-by on the way to Portberry Memorial Park. Guessing won't help at the back of Team Grassroots, close to a boundary, or anywhere hard to pin down; ring and ask.
For Tyne Dock people, the short version
Always, the cap; then, the tip. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Keep it switched off and call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, across Tyne and Wear.