Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Wharfside: Why It Happens
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case put this page down a moment, keep your ignition and motor off, and ring 0333 366 0103. A drain and a full flush, done right where the vehicle sits around Wharfside, is usually all it needs if caught before the motor runs. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the page explains the reasons it takes place and the ways to avoid it altogether.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Diesel feeds the motor — yet plenty of newer diesels driven around Wharfside and Gorse Hill hold a second liquid as well. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, side by side: that is the arrangement on a lot of motors. On others, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in your boot instead. The diesel side is filled at the petrol pump all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less often, usually from a bottle, and usually by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the error lives.
Wharfside: how AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place
It is rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Hurry comes from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a driveway off Trafford Wharf Road, or heading home in the car park at Seven Bro7hers Media City.
Unfamiliar motors come next, as well. Rentals, new vehicles and company vehicles put their fillers in new places, and the hand reaches for the cap used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the pour after it has started. Whether it happens in Salford Quays or the middle of Wharfside, it's the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
A few seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you pour anything, on a drive in Salford or a forecourt in Wharfside.
- Check the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue ones are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually are not.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on many cars, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside your fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Look for it.
- Can't see it next to the diesel inlet? In that case look below the bonnet or in the boot — the owner's manual will say which.
- The previous driver knows. Ask as you pick up a hire car or company car — from Manchester United Football Club's car park, perhaps — not when the warning appears.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
The day the light comes on, wherever in Greater Manchester, use this routine.
- Pull in somewhere level, motor off, with time in hand — not hurried on the side of Waterside.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, yes, but it does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. When both sit under a flap, make sure it's shut before the bottle comes up.
- Stop when your tank fills or the bottle is empty; until then, pour slowly using its own spout.
- Before you start your car, shut the cap and check a second time that your diesel cap never came off.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Never go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Wharfside?
The short order of things, beginning with not starting your engine. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch it on. Topping up with diesel won't thin it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of your tank, just where fuel is drawn from.
The staff at Esso, BP or another forecourt will usually help to push the vehicle away when you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway in Wharfside.
When the motor has been run already, pull over somewhere safe then turn it off. Leave the M602 — under a mile out of Wharfside — at the first junction. Mileage counts — a quick hop across Wharfside is a smaller job than driving under a mile towards Salford — so say about how far it went.
Wharfside: what occurs when our technicians get there
Outside Gorse Hill Primary School, near Casuals or on your own driveway: wherever the car has stopped, our engineers come to it. Both the work and our price depend on three answers — which liquid, which amount, and if it has run — so our engineers ask. You hear that quote on the phone, before anybody sets off.
The fuel system is then rinsed thoroughly, after that tank is cleared. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. We do not leave until it has been started and is running correctly.
If your motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. The insurer usually wants an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Wharfside, for a moment
Wharfside is a suburban area located on the riverside in Greater Manchester, with a mix of residential and commercial properties. Wharfside sits at an elevation of around 30 metres, close to the city of Salford and nearby attractions such as Salford Quays and Old Trafford. Wharfside is predominantly composed of flat housing, reflecting its urban character. Wharfside is situated near major employment centres, including Trafford Park.
AdBlue drains round Wharfside, and Greater Manchester beyond
Being a residential suburb, Wharfside has the same vans as nearby places — Trafford Park, Old Trafford — right across M postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. Quickest of all: give a M17 1 postcode for the van.
Shifting the car is not needed. Draining takes place on the spot, be it a driveway, a street by M&S Outlet, or a lay-by on the way to Blue Peter Garden. Tricky to explain, like the back of Vue? Close to a county line? Checking beats guessing, so phone.
The short version for Wharfside people
Before you tip, read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Keep the vehicle switched off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, throughout Greater Manchester.