Warwick Bridge: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Pause reading for a moment when the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Warwick Bridge. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it does not.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Diesel goes to the motor — yet many modern diesels seen around Warwick Bridge and Warwick-on-Eden carry a second liquid too. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the layout on many vehicles. On others, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in the boot instead. Topping up your diesel side at the pump happens all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less regularly, usually from a bottle, and usually by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the mistake lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank happens around Warwick Bridge
Carelessness rarely explains it. What does is three things lining up together.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from the vehicle, and letting it run dry means limp mode — so a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Waters Meet, perhaps outside The Otter Inn on the way home that evening.
Next, your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old vehicle — because a hire car, a new motor or a company car places the fillers where your last one didn't.
A spout-topped bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, once started, keeps on. Little Corby or the middle of Warwick Bridge: it is the same few seconds either way.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Newby East or a forecourt in Warwick Bridge, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally isn't. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- On many vehicles, the size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many cars say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by your diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Wetheral.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Cumbria that is.
- Stop on level, motor off, with time to spare — never hurried on the side of Eden Grange.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, perhaps, but it works.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where both sit under a flap, make sure it is shut before lifting the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the car, shut the cap and look again that your diesel cap was never opened off.
Spot at stage two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? Then stop just there. Leave out stage five entirely.
Warwick Bridge: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
The short order of things, starting with no starting your engine. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch it on. Thinning it with extra diesel won't work, since AdBlue sinks to the base instead of mixing — and that is where your fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — BP, Crosby Moor Garage or any other — the staff will normally help push your car away, if you ask. On your own drive in Warwick Bridge? So your car stays where it is.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. The next exit means the place to leave when you are on the M6, under 3 miles from Warwick Bridge. Mileage counts — a short hop across Warwick Bridge makes a smaller job than heading under 5 miles towards Carlisle — so tell us roughly how far it went.
What happens when our engineers arrive in Warwick Bridge
By Warwick Bridge Primary School, close to St Paul or on your own driveway: wherever the car has stopped, we come to it. The answers decide this work and our quote, and so our engineers ask what was put in, about how much, and whether it has run. Nobody sets off before you've had the quote over the phone.
Then that tank is drained and the system purged thoroughly. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and none of it washes away unaided. That is why it matters more. Filter flushed or, if it must be, replaced; clean diesel in; and then a test of the car. After that we fire it up and make sure it runs smoothly before leaving.
Unstarted cars mostly mean a half-hour job from the moment we arrive. The kit is fine on a live forecourt, and quiet enough for a driveway late at night. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork your insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Before we get there, take a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Warwick Bridge
Warwick Bridge is a village situated on the River Eden in Cumbria, with a mix of semi-detached housing and other residential properties. Warwick Bridge sits at an elevation of 27 metres, close to the city of Carlisle, and is surrounded by nearby places such as Little Corby and Corby Hill. Warwick Bridge has a population of approximately 871 residents, and its riverside setting provides a distinctive character to the village. Warwick Bridge is located about 4.6 miles from Carlisle, making it a commuter-friendly location.
AdBlue drains across Cumbria, Warwick Bridge included
Throughout CA postcodes, the vans that cover Warwick Bridge — a village — work the nearby spots too, Burnrigg and Corby Hill included. A postcode starting CA4 8 gets our van to you fastest.
Moving the car is not needed. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near Saint Leonard Church, a lay-by on the way to Clay Hurley Bank Woods, a driveway. Assuming doesn't help behind Memorial Hall, on a border, or anywhere awkward to describe; phone and check.
Warwick Bridge people: the short version
Pour no AdBlue until you've read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave it off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it sits, anywhere across Cumbria.