Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Willaston
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then put this page aside a moment, keep your ignition and engine off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Around Willaston, finding it before your engine turns usually means a drain and a thorough flush where it stands. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the page covers the reasons it takes place and the ways to prevent it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel goes to your motor — yet plenty of newer diesels seen about Willaston and Raby hold another fluid as well. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There's a filler for each tank. Many of cars share a single flap for the two, while others move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Filling your diesel side at the petrol pump happens constantly. Rarely filled, AdBlue normally goes in from a bottle, tipped by a driver who has to stop and think what cap it needs. The error lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place around Willaston
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from the vehicle, and running dry leads to limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Neston Road, perhaps at The Nags Head on the way home after work.
Then the vehicle is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
No part stops the tip after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It's a few seconds, be it in Windle Hill or right in the heart of Willaston.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Ness or a forecourt around Willaston, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Trust the cap, not its position.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on many motors. Look for it.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by your diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The previous driver will know. Ask as you pick up a hire car or fleet car — at Hooton's car park, perhaps — rather than once the light appears.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
Anywhere in Cheshire the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Hadlow Road.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you've found the filler and read it.
- 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, until it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, then look again — making sure the diesel filler stayed closed throughout. After that, start the vehicle.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Do not go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Willaston?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with not starting the motor. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels the moment the ignition goes on — so keep it off. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is drawn from.
Ask the attendants to help push the vehicle clear of the petrol pump if you're at a forecourt — the Gordale Petrol Station, the Shell or anywhere else. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway around Willaston.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. On the M53, under 3 miles from Willaston, that means the next junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Liverpool, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Willaston.
Our arrival around Willaston, and what occurs next
Anywhere the vehicle has stopped, be it outside Willaston CofE Primary School, beside Willaston Memorial Hall or on your own drive, the van comes to it. What liquid went in, the amount, and whether it ran: our engineers ask since the answers decide the work and price. That price is given over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
Then that tank is cleared and your system purged thoroughly. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and none of that clears out by itself. That is why it matters more. Testing is last: before that, clean diesel goes in, and the fuel filter is flushed or replaced as needed. Before we leave, our engineers fire it up and confirm that it is running smoothly.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour after our engineers get there, provided the engine has not run — and the pumps we use are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet at night outside a house. Nothing in advance; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Willaston
Willaston is a village in Cheshire, situated inland at an elevation of 51 metres, approximately 8 miles from Liverpool. Willaston has a population of around 1530 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Willaston is close to nearby places such as Windle Hill, Hinderton, and Brookhurst, and is located within the North West region of England.
Willaston and Cheshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Being a rural village, Willaston has the same vans as nearby areas — Hinderton, Brookhurst — all the way through CH postcodes and the wider area beyond. Give a postcode that starts CH64 1, and the van arrives fastest.
The car remains where it is. Wherever it sits — beside Christ Church, on a lay-by heading to Lees Wood, at home — that is where it gets drained. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you are near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Willaston Methodist Church.
Willaston people: the short version
Read the cap before you pour. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere across Cheshire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same — and so leave the car off and ring 0333 366 0103.