Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Upperthorpe
Keep the motor and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Usually, if your engine has not turned, it's emptied and thoroughly cleaned where your car sits around Upperthorpe. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it does not.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Not one fluid but two: that is how many modern diesels near Upperthorpe and Nether Moor carry, with diesel for your engine. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust stream and cleans it.
There's a filler for each 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. The diesel side is filled at the petrol pump all the time. Far less commonly, the AdBlue side is filled — mostly from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. It's in that gap that the mistake lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Upperthorpe: how it occurs
Carelessness rarely explains it. Instead is three things coming up at once.
On a driveway off Upperthorpe Road before work, or in the car park at Nags Head on the way home: that's where the rushed top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low the car warns you, and if it's gone, limp mode follows.
New-to-you vehicles are next, too. Rentals, new motors and company vehicles put their fillers differently, and habit reaches for the cap it used on the old one.
No part stops the tip once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Upperthorpe or out in Westthorpe.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Be it a Upperthorpe forecourt or a driveway out in Nether Green, take a few seconds over these before anything is poured in.
- Position misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps are often blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally do not.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- Lift the filler flap and look for a label — plenty of vehicles mark what belongs in which inlet just there.
- The handbook says which it lives if your filler is not 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 — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Kiveton Bridge.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
When the light goes on, anywhere across Derbyshire, follow this routine.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Upperthorpe Villas.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap works — after you've found the filler and read it.
- Both under one flap? Then make sure the cap on the diesel side stays closed ahead of raising the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Spot at step two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? Then stop just there. Never go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Upperthorpe already?
Don't start your motor: that is how the short order of things starts. Leave the ignition off as well, since on many diesels it by itself starts your fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
On a forecourt — Shell, another forecourt nearby or another — the attendants will usually help roll the vehicle clear, when you ask. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway around Upperthorpe.
When the engine has run by now, pull over safely then switch the vehicle off. Leave the M1 — under 3 miles out of Upperthorpe — at the next exit. About how far did it go? Hopping across Upperthorpe is less work than a trip of under 10 miles towards Sheffield, and so tell us.
What occurs when our technicians turn up in Upperthorpe
Our van reaches your car anywhere it stopped — your own drive, beside St Giles, or outside St Giles CofE Primary School. The replies decide this work and our price, so our engineers ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it has run. You get that quote on the phone, before anybody heads out.
Then your tank is emptied and your system cleaned thoroughly. 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. After the filter is flushed — or renewed, if required — fresh diesel goes in, and then your vehicle gets tested. We don't leave until it has been fired up and is running smoothly.
Unrun vehicles mostly mean a half-hour job after the moment we arrive. The kit is fine on a busy filling station, and hushed enough for a residential street after dark. The insurer usually wants the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Upperthorpe itself
Upperthorpe is a suburban area in Derbyshire, situated near the River Rother and close to the city of Sheffield. Upperthorpe has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are predominant, and the area is relatively small, with a population of around 4163 people. Upperthorpe sits at an elevation of 110 metres, near the villages of Westthorpe and Killamarsh, and is about 7.9 miles from Sheffield's city centre. Upperthorpe is also located within the East Midlands region, approximately 134.6 miles north of London.
AdBlue drains across Derbyshire, Upperthorpe included
Church Town and Killamarsh are among the places around Upperthorpe, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, throughout S postcodes. Quickest of all: give a S21 1 postcode for the van.
No need to shift the car. Draining takes place on the spot, be it a driveway, a street by Killamarsh Library, or a lay-by on the way to Low Plantation. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Killamarsh Methodist Church.
Upperthorpe drivers: the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless, leave the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it waits, anywhere around Derbyshire.