AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Windhill: Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and the ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Windhill. The rest of this page covers why it takes place and how to ensure it does not — useful if you are reading before it has happened.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Diesel feeds your engine — yet plenty of modern diesels driven about Windhill and Wrose hold another fluid too. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust gas to clean it.
Every tank comes with a filler of its own. Many of vehicles share a single flap for the two, whereas some put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is fuelled at the pump all the time. Rarely topped up, AdBlue normally comes out of a bottle, tipped by someone who has to stop and think what filler it needs. It's in the gap that the mistake lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs around Windhill
It's rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Haste comes from the warning. Your car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a drive off Prospect Grove, or heading home in the car park at The New Inn.
New-to-you vehicles are second, too. Rentals, new vehicles and company cars put their fillers differently, and the hand reaches for the cap used on the old one.
Lastly, the bottle fits: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in just as easily, and after the pour starts, nothing halts it. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Windhill or out in Shipley.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Whether a Windhill forecourt or a drive over in Frizinghall, take a few seconds on these before any goes in.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Trust the cap, not its position.
- On many vehicles, the size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many cars say there which fuel goes where.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler sits if it is not by the diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Shipley? Check with the person who drove it last before you set off, rather than when the light goes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across West Yorkshire that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Prospect Street, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park and switch off first.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, yes, but it works.
- The two under one flap? So confirm the cap on your diesel side is still closed ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Don't go on to step five.
Windhill: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the motor. The fuel pump runs on many diesels as soon as the ignition is switched on — so leave it off. Thinning it with extra diesel fails, because AdBlue sinks to the base instead of mixing — and that is where the fuel is drawn from.
The staff at BP, Texaco or another forecourt will normally lend a hand to push the car away when asked. If you are on your own drive in Windhill, leave the car where it sits.
Where the motor has run by now, pull over somewhere safe and turn the car off. On the M606, under 5 miles from Windhill, that means the next exit. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Windhill is less work than a trip of under 3 miles towards Bradford, so tell us.
Windhill: what takes place when we arrive
Anywhere the vehicle has stopped, be it by High Crags Primary Leadership Academy, beside Windhill Methodist Church or at home, the van travels to it. Those replies determine the work and the price, so we ask what went in, about how much, and whether it's run. You hear that quote on the phone, before anybody heads out.
Next: a drain, then a thorough flush of the entire system. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own. Once your filter is cleaned — or replaced, if needed — fresh diesel is added, and finally your vehicle gets tested. Before we go, our technicians fire it up and confirm that it is running smoothly.
If the motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It is worth checking your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Windhill, for a moment
Windhill is a suburban area in West Yorkshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 102 metres, with views of the surrounding landscape. Windhill is located near the city of Bradford, approximately 2.8 miles away, and is close to other nearby places such as Shipley and Owlet. Windhill has a population of around 5773 people and is characterised by predominantly flat-type housing. Windhill is also relatively distant from London, at around 174.6 miles away.
AdBlue drains around Windhill, and West Yorkshire beyond
Windhill is a residential suburb, and our vans that cover it also work the towns near it, Owlet and Wood End among them, across the BD postcode area. Quickest of all: give a BD18 2 postcode for the van.
The vehicle doesn't need to shift. Wherever it sits — near Shipley Sheep Sculpture, in a lay-by en route to Windhill Recreation Grounds, on a drive — that is where it is cleared. Awkward to explain, like the back of Shipley Library? By a border? Checking beats guessing, and so ring.
For Windhill drivers, the short version
First, the cap; after that, the tip. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave the car off and ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere across West Yorkshire.