How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Westoe
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case put this page aside a moment, leave the ignition and engine off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Around Westoe, catching it before your engine runs usually leaves a drain and a full flush on the spot. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Many modern diesels on the roads about Westoe and South Shields carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There's a filler for every tank. Plenty of cars have a single flap for both, whereas others move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in at every filling station call-out, again and again. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less regularly. The error lives in that gap.
Westoe: how AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place
Carelessness rarely explains it. Instead is three things lining up together.
Hurry follows from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a drive off Saint Michael's Avenue, or on the way home in the car park outside The Westoe.
Then, your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old vehicle — since a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not.
No part stops the tip once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Westoe or out in Cauldwell.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Mill Dam or a forecourt around Westoe, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Check the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally are not.
- On plenty of motors, size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Look inside the fuel flap: many vehicles have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows where it is when your filler isn't next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Brockley Whins, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
For the day the light appears — wherever you are across Tyne and Wear — a simple routine to use.
- Turn off after you park — flat ground, motor off, and not rushed beside Readhead Avenue on the verge.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap works — after you've located your filler and read the cap.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Step five is off limits.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Westoe?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the motor. Keep the ignition off as well, because on plenty of diesels it alone starts the pump. Diluting it with more diesel won't work, since AdBlue sinks to the base instead of mixing — and that is where your fuel is sucked from.
On a forecourt — Esso, Asda or any other — the attendants will usually help push the vehicle clear, when you ask. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway around Westoe.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Come off the A194(M) — under 5 miles out of Westoe — at the first exit. Distance counts — a short hop across Westoe makes a smaller job than driving under 10 miles towards Sunderland — so tell us roughly how far it went.
Our arrival in Westoe, and what happens next
Our engineers come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Westoe Crown Primary School, near Westoe Village War Memorial or on your own driveway. The replies determine the work and the price, and so our technicians ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether it's run. You hear that price by phone, before anyone heads out.
The fuel system is then purged thoroughly, once your tank is drained. Much more than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: the crystals form, some metals corrode, and none of it clears out unaided, no matter how long it is left. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. After that our engineers fire it up and check it runs properly before we leave.
If your motor hasn't run, most 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. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents your insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Wrong-fuel cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — so use the wait to look at yours.
About Westoe
Westoe is a suburban area located on the coast of Tyne and Wear, with a relatively low elevation of 38 metres above sea level. Westoe sits near the cities of Sunderland and South Shields, with nearby places including Cauldwell, High Shields, and Harton. Westoe is predominantly composed of flat housing, which is typical of many coastal urban areas in the North East of England. Westoe is situated approximately 246 miles north of London, making it a relatively distant suburb from the capital city.
Westoe and Tyne and Wear: AdBlue drains across the area
Over NE postcodes, the vans covering Westoe — a residential suburb — work the nearby places too, Harton and High Shields included. Give a postcode beginning NE33 3, and our van gets there fastest.
No need to shift your car. The drain happens on the spot, whether a drive, a road by Seventh Day Adventist Church, or a lay-by on the way to Robert Readhead Park. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Saint Michael & All Angels, ring and ask rather than assuming.
The short version for Westoe motorists
Before you tip, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere in Tyne and Wear, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — and so leave it off then call 0333 366 0103.