Upton Heath: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then set this page down a moment, leave your ignition and motor off, and ring 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, done right where your vehicle stands in Upton Heath, is normally what it takes if caught before the engine runs. Reading in advance? In that case the rest explains how it happens and what to prevent it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Plenty of newer diesels around Newton, like those in Upton Heath, carry on two liquids; the engine takes only the diesel. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust gas and cleans it.
Different tanks, different fillers. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, your diesel side is topped up constantly. Rarely filled, AdBlue usually goes in from a bottle, tipped by a driver who must stop and think what cap to use. It's in that gap that the slip happens.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Upton Heath: how it occurs
Carelessness rarely causes it. Instead is three things lining up at once.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from the vehicle, and letting it run dry means limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Rosedene Close, or at The Wheatsheaf on the way home that evening.
The old car's cap is where your hand goes — yet a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That's the second factor: a strange vehicle.
Nothing halts the pour after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it occurs in Upton or the middle of Upton Heath, 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 Hoole Bank or a forecourt around Upton Heath, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Check the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually aren't.
- The size. On plenty of cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Lift the flap and check for a label — many cars show what goes in each inlet just there.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by your diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Bache? Ask whoever drove the vehicle last before you set off, not when the light goes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Cheshire that is.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Caughall Road.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you have found your filler and read the cap.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the vehicle on.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, and look again — making sure the diesel cap stayed shut throughout. Only then, start the car.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Skip step five altogether.
Upton Heath: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the engine. Leave your ignition off too, since on many diesels switching it on alone runs your pump. Thinning it with extra diesel fails, because AdBlue sinks to the bottom rather than mixing — and that is where the fuel is pulled from.
At a forecourt — EQ, Morrisons or any other — the attendants will usually help push the car clear, when you ask. If you're on your own drive in Upton Heath, leave the car where it is.
Where the engine has run already, stop safely and switch the car off. The next exit is the place to come off if you are on the M53, under a mile from Upton Heath. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Chester, under 3 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Upton Heath.
Upton Heath: what occurs when we get there
Anywhere your car has stopped, whether by Acresfield Academy, near Snow Leopard or on your own drive, the van travels to it. Which fluid got in, the amount, and if it ran: our engineers ask because those replies decide both work and quote. You get that price by phone, before anybody heads out.
The system is then rinsed thoroughly, after your tank is emptied. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and neither washes out by itself. Hence it counts more. The filter cleaned or, where it must be, replaced; fresh diesel in; and then a check of the car. Before we leave, our engineers fire it up and check that it is running correctly.
Unrun vehicles mostly mean a half-hour visit after arrival. The kit is fine on a busy forecourt, and quiet enough for a driveway late at night. 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 deposit. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — so use the wait to look at yours.
About Upton Heath itself
Upton Heath is a suburban area located on the outskirts of Chester, situated near the River Dee in Cheshire. Upton Heath sits at an elevation of 41 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Upton Heath is close to nearby places such as Upton, Moston, and Bache, and is approximately 2.3 miles from Chester city centre. Upton Heath has a population of around 2661 residents.
AdBlue drains across Cheshire, Upton Heath included
As a residential suburb, Upton Heath shares its vans nearby areas — Moston, Bache — all the way through CH postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. Give a postcode that starts CH2 1, and our van gets there fastest.
Your car doesn't need to shift. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Chemistry Pits Play Area, a side street near Binturong: our technicians drain the car where it sits. Tricky to pin down, like the back of Bush Dogs? By a border? Checking is better than guessing, and so phone.
For Upton Heath drivers, the short version
Read the cap before you tip. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it where it is, anywhere around Cheshire: switch the car off and ring 0333 366 0103.