Waringstown: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Pause here for a moment when the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Around Waringstown, finding it before your motor turns usually leaves a drain and a full flush where it stands. The rest of this page explains why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't — handy if you're reading ahead of time.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Diesel feeds the motor — but plenty of newer diesels seen about Waringstown and Dollingstown carry another fluid too. The exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the fumes to clean them, from its own tank.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Some cars keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot more place the two together under one flap. Filling the diesel side at the petrol pump happens constantly. The AdBlue side is filled far less commonly, normally from a bottle, and usually by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake grows in that gap between the two.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place in Waringstown
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 completely, the vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off South Crescent before work, or in the car park outside the pub in the village on the way home.
Unfamiliar vehicles come next, too. Rentals, new cars and company cars put their fillers differently, and the hand reaches for the cap it used on the old one.
No part stops the pour once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Gibsons Hill or the heart of Waringstown: it takes the same few seconds in both.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Ballymacmaine or a forecourt in Waringstown, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Position can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue ones are often blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally do not.
- Plenty of vehicles fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on many motors. Check for it.
- The handbook shows which it is when your filler isn't next to your diesel cap: your 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 at the nearest station.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in County Down that is.
- Switch off once parked — flat ground, engine stopped, and not in a rush beside Dunskey Street at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, and look once more — confirm your diesel filler remained shut the whole time. After that, start the vehicle.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Don't go on to stage five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Waringstown?
Short list, then. First: the motor stays unstarted. Do not switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is sucked from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
At a forecourt — the nearest petrol station, another forecourt nearby or any other — the staff will normally help roll the vehicle away, when you ask. Your own drive around Waringstown is where it stays.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the motor has already run. Come off the M77 — over 50 miles out of Waringstown — at the first junction. About how far did it go? Crossing Waringstown is less work than a run of under 15 miles to Lisburn, so say.
What occurs when we get there in Waringstown
Outside the local primary school, near the centre or on your own driveway: wherever the car has stopped, we come to it. The answers determine this work and the price, so our technicians ask what got in, about how much, and if it has run. You hear that quote on the phone, before anyone sets off.
Draining the tank comes next, then a thorough flush of the system. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own. Filter cleaned or, if needed, swapped; fresh diesel in; and then a test of the car. The engine is fired up next and checked to confirm it runs smoothly, all before our engineers head off.
If your engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Nothing in advance; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — and so use the wait to look at yours.
About Waringstown
Waringstown is a locality in County Down, situated inland at an elevation of 48 metres, approximately 12 miles from Lisburn. Waringstown is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its residential nature. Waringstown sits near several nearby places, including Gibsons Hill, Donaghcloney, and Bleary, in the wider region of Northern Ireland.
AdBlue drains in Waringstown and across County Down
Donaghcloney and Bleary are among the towns near Waringstown, a small village, that the same teams cover, throughout BT postcodes. Fastest of all: quote a BT66 7 postcode for the van.
No need to move the vehicle. Draining takes place right there, be it a drive, a road near a street just off the centre, or a lay-by towards the green space at the edge of the village. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of the far end of the built-up part, ring and ask instead of guessing.
For Waringstown motorists, the short version
Read the cap before you tip. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere in County Down, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless — so leave it off then ring 0333 366 0103.