Wheldale: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and your ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Wheldale. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the page explains the reasons it takes place and the how to avoid it altogether.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
No single liquid but two: that's what many newer diesels near Wheldale and Newton carry, with diesel for the engine. The exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the gas to clean them, from a separate tank.
Separate tanks, different fillers. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is filled at the petrol pump all the time. Seldom filled, AdBlue normally goes in out of a bottle, tipped by a driver who must stop and think which filler to use. The error lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank occur around Wheldale?
Carelessness seldom explains it. Instead is three things lining up at once.
Hurry follows from the warning. Your car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a driveway off Wheldon Road, or heading home in the car park at The Wheldale Hotel.
The old car's cap is where the hand reaches — but a rental car, a new car or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That is the second thing: an unfamiliar car.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the pour once it has started. Whether it takes place in New Fryston or the middle of Wheldale, it is the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
A few seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Castleford or a forecourt around Wheldale.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Trust the cap, not its position.
- Many vehicles give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Look inside the fuel flap: plenty of vehicles have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by the diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The previous driver will know. Ask as you collect a hire car or company car — at Castleford's car park, say — rather than when the warning appears.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in West Yorkshire that is.
- Pull in somewhere level, engine off, with time in hand — never rushing on the side of Fair View.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where both sit under a flap, make sure it's shut before lifting the bottle.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the vehicle, shut the cap and check again that your diesel cap never opened off.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Never go on to stage five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Wheldale?
Do not start the engine: that is where the short order of things begins. Do not switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is sucked from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
At a forecourt — Texaco, Shell or another — the staff will usually help roll the car clear, if you ask. If you're on your own drive in Wheldale, leave the vehicle where it is.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. On the A1(M), under 3 miles from Wheldale, that means the next exit. A short hop across Wheldale is a smaller job than a run towards Wakefield, under 10 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
Our arrival in Wheldale, and what happens next
Outside Fairburn View Primary School, Castleford, near Gospel Hall or on your own drive: wherever your car has stopped, we come to it. What liquid was put in, the quantity, and whether it ran: our technicians ask because the answers set both work and quote. On the phone call itself, you are told the price — ahead of dispatch.
Then your tank is cleared and your system flushed thoroughly. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. Testing comes last: before that, fresh diesel is added, and the fuel filter is cleaned or replaced if necessary. Next our engineers start it and make sure it runs smoothly before we go.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour after our technicians arrive, provided your motor has not run — and the pumps our technicians use are fine on a live forecourt yet quiet at night outside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. While we travel, have a look at your policy; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Wheldale, briefly
Wheldale is a suburban area in West Yorkshire, situated on the riverside at a low elevation of around 30 metres. Wheldale lies near the cities of Wakefield and Castleford, with nearby places including New Fryston and Airedale. Wheldale has a population of approximately 1930 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Wheldale is located about 161.7 miles north of London, in the Yorkshire and the Humber region.
AdBlue drains around Wheldale and across West Yorkshire
Wheldale is a residential suburb, and our teams that cover it also work the towns around it, Airedale and Castleford Ings among them, across the WF postcode area. Fastest of all: give a WF10 2 postcode for our van.
The vehicle doesn't need to shift. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street near OneBore Stadium, a lay-by on the way to Hartley's Field, a driveway. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of The Hut.
Wheldale people: the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave it off and call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it waits, anywhere in West Yorkshire.