Why It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Upperlands
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case put this page aside for now, keep the ignition and engine off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Upperlands. Nothing happened yet? Below, the rest of the page explains the why it happens and the ways to prevent it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Not one liquid but two: that's what plenty of modern diesels around Upperlands and Gulladuff run, with diesel feeding your engine. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust stream and cleans it.
Every tank comes with a filler of its own. Other vehicles keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others place both side by side under one flap. Filling your diesel side at the pump happens constantly. Much less frequently, the AdBlue side gets filled — mostly from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. The mistake grows in the gap between them.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank take place around Upperlands?
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from your car, and letting it run dry leads to limp mode — so a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Wallace Cottages, or at the pub in the village on the way home that evening.
The old car's filler is where your hand goes — but a hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That is a second thing: a strange motor.
A spout-topped bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, after begun, carries on. Whether it happens in Culnady or the middle of Upperlands, it is the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Tamlaght or a forecourt in Upperlands, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Trust the cap, not its position.
- Plenty of cars give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Check inside your fuel flap: plenty of vehicles have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- Cannot see it beside your diesel filler? Then look below the bonnet or inside the boot — the handbook will say where.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside the nearest station.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in County Londonderry that is.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Dunaverty Court.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you have found the filler and read the cap.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start your car, close the cap and check a second time that your diesel cap never opened off.
Discover at the second or third stage that AdBlue went in the wrong filler? That's where you stop. Skip step five entirely.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Upperlands?
Do not start the engine: that's how the short order of things begins. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch the vehicle on. Filling up with diesel will not dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the base of that tank, just where fuel is taken from.
The staff at the nearest petrol station, another forecourt nearby or any forecourt will normally lend a hand to push the vehicle away when asked. On your own drive around Upperlands? So the car stays put.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your engine has already run. Leave the M77 — over 50 miles out of Upperlands — at the next junction. A short hop across Upperlands is a smaller job than a run towards Derry, under 50 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
When our engineers turn up around Upperlands, what occurs?
Anywhere your car came to rest, be it by the local primary school, near the centre or at home, the van travels to it. Our technicians ask what went in, about how much, and whether it's run, because the replies decide the work and our price. You get that quote on the phone, before anybody sets off.
After that: draining, then a thorough flush of the whole system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. Testing is last: before that, clean diesel goes in, and the filter is cleaned or replaced as needed. We do not go until it has been started and is running properly.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour once our technicians get there, as long as the engine hasn't run — and the pumps our engineers use are safe on a busy forecourt yet quiet at night beside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It is worth checking your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Upperlands itself
Upperlands is a small locality in County Londonderry, situated inland at an elevation of 66 metres. Upperlands lies near the villages of Culnady, Swatragh, and Maghera, and is approximately 27 miles from the city of Derry. Upperlands is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its rural setting. Upperlands is a relatively small community, with a population of around 536 people.
AdBlue drains around Upperlands, and County Londonderry beyond
Upperlands is a small village, and the teams that cover it also work the places around it, Swatragh and Maghera among them, across the BT postcode area. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting BT46 5.
Your car does not need to move. The drain happens right there, whether a drive, a road by a street just off the centre, or a layby on the way to the green space at the edge of the village. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of the far end of the built-up part, ring and ask instead of assuming.
For Upperlands people, the short version
First, the cap; after that, the pour. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave it off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it stands, anywhere around County Londonderry.