Whinney Banks: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Keep the engine and ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Usually, when your engine has not run, it's emptied and thoroughly rinsed where the vehicle sits around Whinney Banks. The rest of this page explains why it takes place and how to make sure it does not — handy if you're reading before it has happened.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Many modern diesels on the roads around Whinney Banks and Newport carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Different tanks, separate fillers. Plenty of cars share a single flap for the two, while some put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, your diesel side is topped up constantly. Rarely filled, AdBlue usually comes from a bottle, tipped by a driver who has to stop and think what cap it needs. The slip lives in that gap.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Whinney Banks: how it takes place
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from your car, and letting it run out leads to limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Stoneleigh Avenue, or at Coronation on the way home after work.
Unfamiliar vehicles come second, as well. Rentals, new motors and company vehicles put their fillers differently, and habit reaches for the cap it used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, once started, carries on. Acklam or the middle of Whinney Banks: it takes the same few seconds either way.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you tip anything, on a drive in Brookfield or a forecourt in Whinney Banks.
- Position can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually do not.
- The size. On plenty of motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on many cars. Look for it.
- Cannot see it next to the diesel inlet? In that case check beneath the bonnet or in your boot — the handbook says which.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Thornaby.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across North Yorkshire that is.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Croft Avenue.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you've found the 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.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or 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.
Find at step two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? Then stop right there. Step five is out.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Whinney Banks already?
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. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is drawn from.
On a forecourt — Esso, EG On the Move or another — the staff will usually help roll your car away, if you ask. Your own drive in Whinney Banks is the place it stays.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. On the A1(M), under 15 miles from Whinney Banks, that means the next junction. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Whinney Banks is smaller work than a trip of under 25 miles to Durham, and so say.
When our engineers arrive in Whinney Banks, what occurs?
Our van reaches the vehicle wherever it stopped — your own driveway, near St Francis of Assisi, or by Whinney Banks Primary School. What liquid was put in, the amount, and if it ran: our engineers ask since those replies set the work and quote. No one heads out until you've had the price over the phone.
Draining your tank comes next, then a thorough flush of the system. More than with petrol, it matters here: the crystals build up, some metals corrode, and nothing washes away unaided, no matter how long it is left. The filter flushed or, where it must be, replaced; fresh diesel in; and then a check of the car. Then our engineers fire it up and check it runs correctly before we leave.
Unrun cars usually need a half-hour job from the moment we arrive. The equipment is fine on a busy filling station, and quiet enough for a residential street late at night. Nothing in advance; you settle up on the day. At the end, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is part of many insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Whinney Banks itself
Whinney Banks is a suburban area located on the riverside in North Yorkshire, with an elevation of around 15 metres. Whinney Banks sits near the River Tees, close to the nearby places of Acklam, Linthorpe, and Thornaby-on-Tees. Whinney Banks is characterised by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock, and is situated approximately 20 miles from the city of Durham. Whinney Banks is also around 215 miles north of London.
Whinney Banks and North Yorkshire: AdBlue drains across the area
As a residential suburb, Whinney Banks has the same vans as surrounding areas — Linthorpe, Thornaby-on-Tees — right across TS postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting TS5 8.
No need to move the vehicle. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Jack Hatfield Sports Club Ltd, a side street close to Acklam Branch Library: our engineers drain the car where it sits. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Trinity Methodist Church.
For Whinney Banks motorists, the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it wherever it stands, anywhere in North Yorkshire: keep it off then phone 0333 366 0103.