Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Wadsley Bridge: Why It Happens
Stop reading for a moment when the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and phone 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, done right where the car stands around Wadsley Bridge, is usually what it takes when caught before the engine runs. The remainder of this page covers why it occurs and how to make sure it does not — useful if you are reading before it has happened.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Many current diesels on the roads around Wadsley Bridge and Southey Green carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. Your exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the fumes to fresh them, from its own tank.
Each tank comes with a filler of its own. Many of vehicles share a single flap for both, whereas others move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Filling your diesel side at the pump happens all the time. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less often. That gap is where the mistake lives.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank happens around Wadsley Bridge
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Trafalgar Road before work, or in the car park outside The Pheasant Inn on the way home.
Unfamiliar cars come next, as well. Hire cars, new cars and company vehicles put their fillers in new places, and habit goes for the cap used on the old one.
No part halts the tip once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Birley Carr or the heart of Wadsley Bridge: it takes the same few seconds either way.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
A couple of seconds is all these take — so check them before you pour anything, on a drive in Hillsborough or a forecourt in Wadsley Bridge.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally isn't. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- On many vehicles, size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Open the filler flap and check for a label — plenty of vehicles mark which goes in each filler just there.
- Can't see it beside the diesel filler? Then check beneath 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 at Sheffield.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
For the day the light appears — wherever you are across South Yorkshire — a routine to follow.
- Not in a rush on the side of Baxter Road, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park then switch off first.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you've found your filler and read it.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Finish when your tank fills or the bottle runs dry; before that, tip gently using the own spout.
- Before starting your car, close the cap and check a second time that the diesel cap was never opened off.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Do not go on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Wadsley Bridge already?
Brief order, then. Top of that: the engine remains unstarted. Keep the ignition off as well, because on many diesels it by itself starts your fuel pump. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is sucked from.
On a forecourt — BP, Esso or any other — the attendants will usually help push the car away, when you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive in Wadsley Bridge.
Already run? Pull over when it's safe, then turn off. Wadsley Bridge lies under 3 miles from the M1; on it, take the next exit. Distance counts — a short hop across Wadsley Bridge is a smaller job than driving under 3 miles to Sheffield — so tell us roughly how far it went.
What occurs when our engineers get there around Wadsley Bridge
Our van comes to your car anywhere it stopped — your own driveway, near Christ Church, Hillsborough and Wadsley Bridge, or by Parson Cross Church of England Primary School. The answers decide this work and the quote, so we ask what went in, about how much, and if it's run. You get that price by phone, before anybody heads out.
Your system is then flushed thoroughly, after that tank is emptied. With AdBlue that matters 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. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Your engine is fired up next and checked to be sure it runs correctly, all before we head off.
Using pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the motor hasn't run need about half an hour once our technicians arrive. No money upfront; you settle up on the day. At the end, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. While we travel, take a look at your policy; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Wadsley Bridge and where it is
Wadsley Bridge is a suburban area in South Yorkshire, situated near the River Don and approximately 2.9 miles from Sheffield city centre. Wadsley Bridge has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are predominant, and the area is close to nearby places such as Birley Carr and Owlerton. Wadsley Bridge sits at an elevation of around 92 metres, with the surrounding landscape influencing its development and character.
AdBlue drains across South Yorkshire, Wadsley Bridge included
Being a residential suburb, Wadsley Bridge has the same vans as nearby areas — Owlerton, Birley Edge — all the way through S postcodes and the wider area around them. Quote a postcode beginning S6 1, and our van gets there fastest.
No need to move the car. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near TK Maxx, a lay-by on the way to Bagshaw Wood, a drive. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Niagara Conference and Leisure Centre.
The short version for Wadsley Bridge drivers
First, the cap; after that, the pour. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere in South Yorkshire.