Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Uppermill: Why It Happens
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then set this page down for now, leave your ignition and motor off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Uppermill. Not happened yet? Below, the rest of the page covers the reasons it occurs and the how to avoid it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
No single liquid but two: that is what many newer diesels near Uppermill and Tame Water carry, with diesel feeding your motor. Its own tank holds it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, and there spraying cleans the gas.
Every tank has one filler of its own. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is fuelled at the petrol pump all the time. The AdBlue side is topped up far less often, normally from a bottle, and normally by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. It's in that gap that the error happens.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Uppermill: how it occurs
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, your vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off New Street before work, or in the car park at The Commie on the way home.
The old car's filler is where your hand reaches — but a hire car, a new motor or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That's the second factor: a strange motor.
A spout-topped bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, after started, keeps on. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Uppermill or out in Shaws.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A few seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Dobcross or a forecourt in Uppermill.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Go by the cap, not its position.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on many cars, the AdBlue one.
- Check inside your fuel flap: plenty of motors carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- Can't find it next to your diesel inlet? Then check below the bonnet or in your boot — the owner's manual says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Greenfield? Check with whoever drove the vehicle last before you set off, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
Anywhere in Greater Manchester the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Stop on level, motor off, with time in hand — never hurried on the side of Church Road.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" out loud as unscrewing it. It seems silly. It works.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Find at the second or third step that AdBlue went in the diesel tank? That is where you stop. Skip stage five altogether.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Uppermill?
Brief list, then. Top of that: your engine remains off. Don't switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
Ask the attendants to help roll the car clear of the pump if you are at a forecourt — the Gulf, the Shell or anywhere else. If you're on your own driveway in Uppermill, leave the vehicle where it sits.
Already run? Pull over once it's safe, then turn off. The next exit means where to come off if you're on the A627(M), under 10 miles from Uppermill. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Manchester, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Uppermill.
Uppermill: what occurs when our technicians turn up
We come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside St Chad's Church of England Primary School, near Uppermill Methodist Church or on your own drive. What liquid got in, the amount, and whether it ran: our technicians ask since those answers decide both work and quote. You get that quote by phone, before anyone heads out.
Then that tank is emptied and your system purged thoroughly. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and none of that washes away by itself. That is why it matters more. The filter flushed or, where needed, replaced; fresh diesel in; then a test of the vehicle. Then our engineers start the engine and make sure it runs correctly before leaving.
Using pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your motor hasn't run take about half an hour once we are there. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork an insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Wrong-fuel cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — so use the wait to look at yours.
About Uppermill itself
Uppermill is a village in Greater Manchester, situated on the River Tame at an elevation of 168 metres. Uppermill has a mix of old and new buildings, including many terraced houses, and is surrounded by nearby places such as Shaws and Heathfields. Uppermill is located near the base of the Pennine hills, approximately 11 miles east of Manchester, and is a relatively small community with a population of around 1880 people.
AdBlue drains in Uppermill and across Greater Manchester
Over OL postcodes, the vans that cover Uppermill — a village — work the surrounding places too, Lower Arthurs and Heathfields among them. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting OL3 6.
The car remains where it is. Draining happens on the spot, whether a driveway, a road by Uppermill Library, or a lay-by on the way to King George V Playing Fields. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of St Chad's Parish Centre, ring and ask rather than assuming.
Uppermill people: the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere around Greater Manchester, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — so leave the car off and phone 0333 366 0103.