How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Westwoodside
Pause reading a minute if your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then phone 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, done right where the car sits around Westwoodside, is usually what it needs if caught before the engine runs. Not happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page explains the reasons it takes place and the ways to avoid it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of newer diesels on the roads round Westwoodside and Graizelound carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust stream and cleans it.
Each tank comes with one filler of its own. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is topped up at the pump all the time. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less frequently. The mistake grows in that gap between them.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place in Westwoodside
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out completely, your vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Gollands Lane before work, or in the car park at The Carpenters Arms on the way home.
Unfamiliar cars are next, too. Rentals, new vehicles and company vehicles put their fillers in new places, and the hand goes for the cap used on the old one.
No part halts the tip after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it occurs in Haxey Carr or the middle of Westwoodside, it is the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you pour anything, on a driveway in East Lound or a forecourt in Westwoodside.
- Check the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue ones are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually aren't.
- Plenty of vehicles fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Check inside the fuel flap: plenty of vehicles carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- Can't find it beside your diesel filler? Then look below the bonnet or in the boot — the owner's manual will say which.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Crowle, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Lincolnshire that is.
- Stop on level, motor off, with time to spare — not rushing on the side of Brethergate Villas.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, yes, yet it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the vehicle on.
- 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 the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Spot at step two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? So stop right there. Step five is out.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Westwoodside?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with not starting the motor. Leave the ignition off too, because on plenty of diesels it alone runs the fuel pump. Diluting it with more diesel won't work, since AdBlue sinks to the base rather than mixing — and that's where your fuel is drawn from.
On a forecourt — the nearest petrol station, another forecourt nearby or another — the attendants will normally help roll your car away, when you ask. At home around Westwoodside? Then the car remains put.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the engine has already run. On the M180, under 10 miles from Westwoodside, that means the next exit. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Doncaster, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Westwoodside.
Westwoodside: what occurs when our technicians arrive
Our engineers come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Westwoodside Church of England Academy, close to Primitive Methodist Chapel or on your own drive. The replies determine the work and our quote, so our technicians ask what went in, about how much, and if it's run. That quote is given on the call, before any van leaves.
Emptying your tank comes next, followed by a full flush of the system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. A test comes last: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and the filter is cleaned or changed if necessary. Next our technicians start it and check it runs properly before we go.
With pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the engine hasn't run need about half an hour after our engineers arrive. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork your insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Westwoodside
Westwoodside is a small village in northern Lincolnshire, situated near the towns of Haxey and Doncaster. Westwoodside lies in a low-lying area at an elevation of around 16 metres, close to the Haxey Carr and Langholme. Westwoodside has a population of approximately 676 residents, with a predominance of detached housing.
AdBlue drains across Lincolnshire, Westwoodside included
Over DN postcodes, the vans covering Westwoodside — a rural village — work the nearby spots too, Langholme and Haxey included. Quote a postcode beginning DN9 2, and the van arrives fastest.
Shifting the vehicle isn't necessary. The drain happens right there, be it a driveway, a street near Westwoodside Village Hall, or a lay-by towards Westwoodside Playing Field. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of St Nicholas.
Westwoodside people: the short version
Tip nothing till you've read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Keep the vehicle switched off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, across Lincolnshire.