How It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Wattlebridge
Pause here for a moment if the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then phone 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, done right where your vehicle stands in Wattlebridge, is normally what it needs if found before your motor runs. The rest of this page explains why it occurs and how to ensure it doesn't — handy if you're reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
No single fluid but two: that is what plenty of modern diesels around Wattlebridge and Donagh carry, with diesel feeding your motor. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Different tanks, different fillers. Under one flap, side by side: that's the arrangement on a lot of cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. At the petrol pump, your diesel side is topped up constantly. Seldom filled, AdBlue normally comes out of a bottle, tipped by a driver who has to stop and think which cap to use. The slip lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank take place in Wattlebridge?
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from your car, and letting it run out leads to limp mode — so a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Heugh Road, or outside the pub in the village on the way home that evening.
Then, your hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old car — since a hire car, a new car or a company car places the fillers where your last one didn't.
A spouted bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, once started, carries on. Newtownbutler or the middle of Wattlebridge: it is the same few seconds in both.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Look at these before pouring, on a forecourt around Wattlebridge or a drive out in Teemore. A few seconds, no more.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- Plenty of motors fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Look inside your fuel flap: many cars have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by your diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside the nearest station? Check with whoever drove it last before leaving, not once the light goes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
The day the light goes on, anywhere in County Fermanagh, use this routine.
- Stop on level, engine off, with time in hand — not hurried on the side of South Crescent.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you have located the filler and read it.
- Both behind one flap? Then confirm the cap on your diesel side stays closed ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start your car, close the cap and check a second time that the diesel cap was never opened off.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Don't carry on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Wattlebridge?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your motor. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch the vehicle on. Thinning it with more diesel won't work, because AdBlue settles to the base instead of mixing — and that is where the fuel is sucked from.
On a forecourt — the nearest petrol station, another forecourt nearby or any other — the attendants will normally help push your car clear, when you ask. Your own driveway in Wattlebridge is where it should stay.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your motor has already run. Wattlebridge sits over 50 miles from the M77; there, use the next exit. About how far did it go? Hopping across Wattlebridge is less work than a run of under 50 miles towards Armagh, so tell us.
Wattlebridge: what occurs when our technicians get there
The van reaches your car anywhere it has come to rest — your own driveway, beside the centre, or outside the local primary school. What fluid was put in, the amount, and if it ran: we ask because those replies set both work and quote. You hear that price by phone, before anybody sets off.
The system is then purged thoroughly, after the tank is cleared. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. The filter cleaned or, if it must be, replaced; clean diesel in; then a test of the vehicle. We don't go until it has been fired up and is running smoothly.
If the motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. No money in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. While we travel, take a look at your insurance documents; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Wattlebridge
Wattlebridge is a locality in County Fermanagh, situated inland at an elevation of 56 metres, and is located near the settlements of Newtownbutler and Magheraveely. Wattlebridge has a population of around 812 people, predominantly living in detached housing. Wattlebridge is also close to Derryvore and is within driving distance of Armagh, the nearest city. Wattlebridge is a significant distance from London, at approximately 351.6 miles away.
AdBlue drains around Wattlebridge, and County Fermanagh beyond
Magheraveely and Derryvore are among the towns around Wattlebridge, a small village, that the same teams cover, over BT postcodes. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting BT92 8.
Shifting the vehicle is not needed. Anywhere it sits — beside a street just off the centre, in a layby heading to the green space at the edge of the village, on a drive — that is where it gets drained. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of the far end of the built-up part.
For Wattlebridge motorists, the short version
Read the cap before you pour. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave the vehicle off then call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it sits, anywhere around County Fermanagh.