Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Upton Meadow
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and the ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, carried out right where the vehicle stands in Upton Meadow, is usually all it takes if found before your motor runs. Here before the event? Then what follows covers why it comes about and what to stop it ever happening.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Plenty of newer diesels in Saughall Massie, like those in Upton Meadow, carry on two fluids; your engine takes just your diesel. The exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the fumes to clean it, from a separate tank.
There is a filler for each tank. Other vehicles put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot more have both together behind one flap. Topping up the diesel side at the petrol pump happens constantly. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less often. It is in the gap that the mistake happens.
Upton Meadow: how AdBlue in the diesel tank happens
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
Hurry follows from the warning. Your car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a drive off Whitelands Meadow, or heading home in the car park at The Gravesberie Inn.
Unfamiliar vehicles come next, as well. Hire cars, new motors and company cars place their fillers in new places, and the hand goes for the cap it used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, once started, carries on. Upton or the heart of Upton Meadow: it takes the same few seconds in both.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Check these before pouring, on a forecourt around Upton Meadow or a driveway over in Woodchurch. A few seconds, that's all.
- Position can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually do not.
- The size. On many cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler is if it is not by the diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Upton? Ask the person who drove the car last before you set off, rather than when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
When the light goes on, wherever in Merseyside, use this routine.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Cortsway.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- The two under a single flap? Then make sure the cap on your diesel filler stays closed before lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the car, shut the cap and check again that the diesel cap never came off.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Never carry on to stage five.
Upton Meadow: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Don't start the motor: that's where the short order of things begins. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels as soon as your ignition goes on — so keep it off. Filling up with diesel will not dilute it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of that tank, just where the fuel is drawn from.
The staff at Shell, Sainsbury's or any forecourt will normally help to push the vehicle clear if asked. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway around Upton Meadow.
Already run? Pull over when it's safe, then turn off. Upton Meadow lies under a mile from the M53; there, use the first junction. About how far did it go? Hopping across Upton Meadow is less work than a run of under 10 miles to Liverpool, and so say.
Our arrival around Upton Meadow, and what occurs next
By Brookdale Primary School, close to Boyes or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our engineers come to it. Which fluid went in, the amount, and if it ran: our engineers ask because the replies decide both work and price. That quote comes over the phone, before any van leaves.
Then that tank is emptied and the fuel system purged thoroughly. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. The filter flushed or, if needed, swapped; fresh diesel in; then a test of your vehicle. Before leaving, our engineers start it and make sure that it is running correctly.
Unrun cars usually need a half-hour job from arrival. The kit is safe on a live forecourt, and hushed enough for a residential street after dark. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents an insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. While we travel, have a look at your insurance documents; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Upton Meadow itself
Upton Meadow is a suburban area located on the Wirral Peninsula in Merseyside, with Upton Meadow sitting near the coast at an elevation of around 20 metres. Upton Meadow is close to the nearby settlements of Upton, Arrowe Hill, and Greasby, and is approximately 5.6 miles from Liverpool. Upton Meadow has a population of around 5813 people, with Upton Meadow being characterised by predominantly semi-detached housing.
AdBlue drains around Upton Meadow and across Merseyside
Arrowe Hill and Greasby are among the places near Upton Meadow, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, throughout CH postcodes. Quote a postcode beginning CH49 2, and the van gets there fastest.
The car doesn't need to shift. Wherever it sits — beside St. Mary's Upton - The Centre, on a lay-by heading to Upton Cricket Club, at home — that is where it gets emptied. Guessing won't help at the back of Upton Victory Hall, close to a boundary, or somewhere awkward to describe; phone and check.
Upton Meadow people: the short version
Tip nothing until you've read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Keep the car switched off then call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, across Merseyside.