Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in West Hallam: Why It Happens
Pause here for a moment if the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then phone 0333 366 0103. In West Hallam, catching it before the engine turns normally leaves a drain and a thorough flush on the spot. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it does not.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Diesel goes to your engine — but plenty of modern diesels driven round West Hallam and Smalley Common hold another liquid too. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust gas to clean it.
There is a filler on every tank. Plenty of motors share a single flap for the two, while some move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled on each filling station call-out, again and again. Seldom filled, AdBlue normally comes out of a bottle, poured by a driver who has to stop and think which cap it needs. The slip lives in that gap.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in West Hallam: how it occurs
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from your car, and running out means limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off The Village, perhaps outside The Newdigate on the way home after work.
The old car's filler is where the hand reaches — but a rental car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That's the second factor: an unfamiliar car.
No part halts 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. Stanley Common or the middle of West Hallam: it is the same few seconds in both.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Look at these before pouring, on a forecourt around West Hallam or a driveway over in Kirk Hallam. A few seconds, no more.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of motors, the AdBlue one.
- Lift the filler flap and check for a label — plenty of vehicles show what goes in each filler just there.
- The handbook shows where it lives if your filler isn't next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park at Ilkeston? Check with the person who drove the car last before leaving, not once the light goes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
Anywhere across Derbyshire the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Hall Court.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, yes, but it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, and look again — making sure the diesel cap remained shut throughout. After that, start the car.
Find at stage two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? So stop just there. Leave out step five entirely.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in West Hallam?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your engine. The fuel pump runs on many diesels as soon as the ignition goes on — and so keep it off. Filling up with diesel won't dilute it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the base of that tank, right where fuel is taken from.
Ask the attendants to help push the vehicle away from the pump if you are at a forecourt — the Asda, the Applegreen or somewhere else. Your own drive in West Hallam is where it stays.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. West Hallam sits under 5 miles from the M1; on it, use the next exit. A short hop across West Hallam is a smaller job than a run towards Derby, under 10 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
What happens when we get there around West Hallam
Our technicians come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Scargill CofE Primary School, near West Hallam Village Hall or on your own driveway. Both the work and the price depend on three answers — what fluid, what quantity, and if it's run — so our engineers ask. During the phone call itself, you hear the price — before dispatch.
The system is then rinsed thoroughly, once that tank is cleared. 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 doesn't wash out on its own. Filter flushed or, if it must be, swapped; clean diesel in; then a check of your car. The engine is started next and checked to be sure it runs properly, all before our technicians leave.
Using pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your motor hasn't run need roughly half an hour once our engineers arrive. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents your insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Before we get there, have a look at your insurance documents; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About West Hallam
West Hallam is a village in Derbyshire, situated on the banks of the River Derwent at an elevation of around 101 metres. West Hallam lies approximately 5.7 miles northwest of Derby, making it a commuter-friendly location for those working in the city. West Hallam has a population of around 1152 people, with a predominance of detached housing stock. West Hallam is close to nearby places such as Stanley Common, Mapperley, and Stanley, which provide additional amenities and services.
AdBlue drains across Derbyshire, West Hallam included
Mapperley and Stanley are among the places around West Hallam, a village, that the same vans cover, throughout DE postcodes. Quote a postcode beginning DE7 6, and the van arrives quickest.
Moving your car is not needed. Draining happens right there, be it a driveway, a street by John Scargill (1588-1662), or a layby on the way to Beech Lane Recreation Ground. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Saint Wilfrid's Church, ring and ask instead of assuming.
West Hallam motorists: the short version
Pour nothing until you have read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Leave the car off then call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, across Derbyshire.