AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Waverton: Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and your ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before your motor runs, it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Waverton. Not happened yet? Further down, the page explains the reasons it occurs and the how to prevent it for good.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Not one liquid but two: that is how plenty of modern diesels near Waverton and Christleton carry, with diesel feeding your motor. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the arrangement on a lot of vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. At the pump, the diesel side gets filled all the time. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less often. The slip lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank occur around Waverton?
Carelessness rarely explains it. Instead is three things coming up together.
On a drive off Eggbridge Lane before work, or in the car park outside Rowton Poplars on the way home: that's where the hurried top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low your car tells you, and if it's gone, limp mode follows.
Next, your hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old vehicle — because a hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't.
A spouted bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, once begun, carries on. It's a few seconds, be it out in Rowton or bang in the heart of Waverton.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Be it a Waverton forecourt or a drive over in Greenlooms, spend a few seconds over these before any goes in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually isn't. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- On plenty of vehicles, size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Check for it.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler sits if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Chester, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
The day the light goes on, anywhere in Cheshire, follow this routine.
- Switch off after you park — flat ground, motor off, and never in a rush beside Common Lane on the verge.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you've found your filler and read the cap.
- Both under one flap? Then confirm the lid on your diesel filler stays shut ahead of raising the bottle.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Before starting your car, shut the cap and check again that your diesel cap never came off.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Do not go on to stage five.
Waverton: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with no starting your engine. Don't switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the 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 the fuel is drawn from.
The attendants at Esso, Sainsbury's or another forecourt will normally lend a hand pushing your car away if you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway around Waverton.
When the engine has been run already, stop somewhere safe then turn the car off. The next junction means where to leave if you are on the M53, under 3 miles from Waverton. Distance matters — a short hop across Waverton is a smaller job than heading under 5 miles to Chester — so say about how far it went.
Our arrival in Waverton, and what takes place next
Outside Waverton Community Primary School, close to Waverton Village Hall or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, we come to it. What fluid went in, the quantity, and whether it ran: our technicians ask because those replies set the work and quote. The price is given over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
Then that tank is cleared 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, and so it does not wash out on its own. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. The engine is started next and tested to be sure it runs properly, all before our engineers leave.
Unrun vehicles usually mean a half-hour job after arrival. The equipment is fine on a busy filling station, and quiet enough for a driveway after dark. No money in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is part of many insurance policies — so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Waverton, briefly
Waverton is a village in Cheshire, situated on the River Dee, with a mix of rural and suburban characteristics. Waverton lies close to the city of Chester, approximately 3 miles to the south, and is surrounded by nearby places such as Rowton and Milners Heath. Waverton has a population of around 1227 people, predominantly living in detached houses, and is set in a low-lying area at an elevation of 39 metres. Waverton is also relatively distant from London, at around 161 miles to the south-east.
AdBlue drains around Waverton and across Cheshire
Being a village, Waverton has the same vans as nearby areas — Rowton Moor, Milners Heath — all the way across CH postcodes and the surrounding area around them. Fastest of all: quote a CH3 7 postcode for the van.
The vehicle does not need to move. Anywhere it sits — beside EGG BRIDGE WAVERTON, on a lay-by en route to Queen's Field, on a drive — that's where it gets emptied. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Monument for Battle of Rowton Moor, 1645, ring and ask instead of assuming.
The short version for Waverton people
Pour no AdBlue until you've read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere across Cheshire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same — so leave it off then phone 0333 366 0103.