AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Western Bank: Why It Happens and How to Avoid It
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then set this page aside a moment, leave your ignition and engine off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Around Western Bank, catching it before your engine runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush on the spot. Reading in advance? In that case the rest explains how it comes about and what to stop it ever happening.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
No single fluid but two: that is what many modern diesels near Western Bank and Standingstone carry, with diesel feeding your motor. The exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the fumes to clean it, from its own tank.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Plenty of cars share a single flap for the two, whereas some put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is topped up at the pump all the time. Seldom filled, AdBlue usually comes out of a bottle, tipped by someone who must stop and think which filler to use. That gap is where the error lives.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs in Western Bank
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
On a driveway off Wasdale before work, or in the car park outside Hare & Hounds on the way home: that is where the hurried top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and once it's gone, limp mode kicks in.
Then the vehicle is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, once started, carries on. It's a few seconds, whether out in Station Hill or bang in the heart of Western Bank.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Check these before pouring, on a forecourt around Western Bank or a drive over in Brackenlands. A few seconds, that's all.
- Position can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue caps are often blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally don't.
- On many vehicles, the size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Open the filler flap and check for a label — plenty of vehicles show which belongs in which filler right there.
- The handbook says which it is if your filler isn't next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- 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 Wigton.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
When the light goes on, wherever in Cumbria, use this routine.
- Turn off once parked — flat ground, motor stopped, and never rushed beside Langdale on the verge.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, perhaps, but it does the trick.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift 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 look again that the diesel cap never opened off.
Find during the second or third stage that the bottle went in the wrong tank? That's where you stop. Skip stage five altogether.
Western Bank: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Brief order, then. Top of it: your engine remains off. Do not switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel won't dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the base of your tank, right where the fuel is drawn from.
Ask the attendants to help push the car clear of the petrol pump if you're at a forecourt — the BP, the another forecourt nearby or anywhere else. At home in Western Bank? So your car remains put.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the motor has already run. On the M6, under 15 miles from Western Bank, that means the next exit. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Western Bank is less work than a run of under 15 miles to Carlisle, and so tell us.
When our engineers turn up in Western Bank, what takes place?
The van reaches the car anywhere it stopped — your own drive, beside Moore Memorial Fountain, or outside Wigton Nursery and Infant School. Which liquid was put in, the amount, and whether it ran: our technicians ask because the answers decide the work and quote. You hear that price on the phone, before anybody heads out.
Next: a drain, then a full flush of the entire system. More than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: the crystals build up, certain metals are attacked, and none of that washes out on its own, however long it sits. The filter flushed or, where it must be, replaced; clean diesel in; and then a check of the vehicle. The engine is started next and tested to be sure it runs properly, all before our technicians go.
If your motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Nothing in advance; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — so use the wait to look at yours.
About Western Bank
Western Bank is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Cumbria, with an elevation of 33 metres, and is located near the city of Carlisle. Western Bank has a mix of housing types, but is predominantly characterised by terraced homes. Western Bank is close to other nearby places such as Station Hill and Wigton, and is about 10.9 miles from Carlisle. Western Bank is a relatively small community with a population of around 1190 people.
AdBlue drains in Western Bank and across Cumbria
Over CA postcodes, our vans that cover Western Bank — a residential suburb — work the surrounding places too, Aikhead and Wigton among them. Quote a postcode that starts CA7 9, and the van gets there fastest.
Shifting the car isn't necessary. Anywhere it stands — beside Wigton Library, in a lay-by en route to Swinegate Plantation, at home — that is where it is cleared. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Wigton Youth Station.
Western Bank drivers: the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave the vehicle off then call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it waits, anywhere across Cumbria.