How It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in West Boldon
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and the ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, carried out just where the car sits around West Boldon, is usually all it takes when caught before your motor runs. Here in advance? In that case what follows explains how it happens and how to prevent it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
No single liquid but two: that's how many newer diesels near West Boldon and Town End Farm run, with diesel feeding the motor. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust gas and cleans it.
Each tank has its own filler. Plenty of motors share a single flap for both, while some move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Topping up the diesel side at the pump goes on all the time. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less often. The error lives in that gap.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around West Boldon: how it takes place
Carelessness seldom explains it. Instead is three things coming up together.
Haste follows from the warning. The vehicle tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a drive off Rosemount Court, or heading home in the car park at The Wheatsheaf.
Then, the hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old motor — since a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the tip once it has started. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of West Boldon or out in East Boldon.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Whether a West Boldon forecourt or a drive over in Hylton Red House, spend a couple of seconds on these before any goes in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally is not. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- On plenty of vehicles, size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Look inside the fuel flap: plenty of vehicles have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- Cannot see it next to the diesel filler? Then check beneath the bonnet or inside your boot — the owner's manual says which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside East Boldon.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
Anywhere around Tyne and Wear the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Aviemore Road.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, perhaps, yet it works.
- The diesel cap stays on. When the two sit under a flap, confirm it's shut before the bottle comes up.
- Finish once that tank fills or the bottle is empty; until then, tip slowly using the built-in spout.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Discover during the second or third stage that the bottle went into the diesel tank? That's where you stop. Don't go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around West Boldon?
Do not start your engine: that's where the short order of things begins. Do not switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is sucked from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it is the Asda or the Shell, ask the staff to help push your car away from the petrol pump. On your own drive around West Boldon? So your car stays put.
When your motor has been run already, stop safely and turn the vehicle off. On the A194(M), under 3 miles from West Boldon, that means the next exit. A short hop across West Boldon is a smaller job than a run towards Sunderland, under 5 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
West Boldon: what takes place when our technicians arrive
Our engineers come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside West Boldon Primary School, near Boldon Lawn Tennis Club or on your own driveway. The answers decide the work and the price, and so we ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it has run. No one heads out until you've had the quote over the phone.
Next: a drain, then a thorough flush of the entire system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more here than with petrol. The filter cleaned or, where it must be, swapped; clean diesel in; and then a check of the vehicle. We don't go until it has been started and is running smoothly.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour once we arrive, as long as the engine has not run — and the pumps our engineers use are fine on a live forecourt yet quiet after dark beside a house. No money in advance; you settle up that day. At the end, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About West Boldon itself
West Boldon is a village situated on the banks of the River Wear in Tyne and Wear, with a mix of semi-detached housing and local amenities. West Boldon lies close to the city of Sunderland, approximately 3.7 miles away, and is near other settlements such as East Boldon and Boldon Colliery. West Boldon has a relatively low elevation of around 51 metres above sea level, typical of the coastal lowlands of the North East region. West Boldon is also within a short distance of other nearby places, including Downhill.
AdBlue drains round West Boldon, and Tyne and Wear beyond
Throughout NE postcodes, the vans covering West Boldon — a village — work the surrounding locations too, Downhill and Boldon Colliery included. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting NE36 0.
Moving the car is not necessary. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Boldon Golf Club, a side street close to St Nicholas' Church: our engineers drain it where it sits. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of East Boldon Methodist Church, ring and ask rather than assuming.
The short version for West Boldon people
Tip no AdBlue till you've read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Leave the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, throughout Tyne and Wear.