AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Winwick Quay: Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It
Keep your engine and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Usually, if the motor hasn't run, it's emptied and thoroughly flushed where your car sits in Winwick Quay. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
No single liquid but two: that is what plenty of newer diesels near Winwick Quay and Gemini run, with diesel feeding the motor. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, and there a spray treats the fumes.
Different tanks, different fillers. Many of cars share a single flap for both, whereas some put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Filling the diesel side at the pump goes on all the time. Rarely filled, AdBlue usually comes out of a bottle, poured by a driver who has to stop and think which filler to use. It's in the gap that the mistake lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Winwick Quay: how it happens
It is seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a drive off West Quay Road before work, or in the car park at The Poplars on the way home: that's where the rushed top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low the car tells you, and once it is gone, limp mode kicks in.
Then, your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old car — since a rental car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
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 once it has started. Whether it occurs in Longford or the middle of Winwick Quay, it is the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Whether a Winwick Quay forecourt or a driveway out in Callands, spend a few seconds over these before anything is poured in.
- Check the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue ones are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally are not.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of 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.
- Whoever had it before will know. Ask as you collect a hire car or company car — at Warrington Central's car park, say — rather than when the light appears.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
On the day the warning appears — anywhere you are in Cheshire — a routine to use.
- Stop somewhere level, motor off, with time to spare — never hurried on the side of Calver Park Road.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew it. It sounds silly. It works.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Only then, start the vehicle: close the cap, check once more, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Find at step two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? So stop just there. Leave out step five altogether.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Winwick Quay already?
Short order, then. First: the motor stays unstarted. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels as soon as the ignition is switched on — so keep it off. Diluting it with extra diesel fails, since AdBlue settles to the base instead of mixing — and that's where your fuel is sucked from.
On a forecourt — Tesco, Shell or another — the staff will normally help roll the car away, when you ask. If you are on your own drive around Winwick Quay, leave it where it sits.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Winwick Quay lies under a mile from the M62; there, take the first exit. Distance matters — a quick hop across Winwick Quay is a smaller job than heading under 15 miles to Salford — so say about how far it went.
When we arrive around Winwick Quay, what takes place?
Outside Dallam Community Primary School, near Tru Ninja or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, we come to it. Both the work and our quote depend on three answers — what fluid, what quantity, and whether it has run — so our engineers ask. During the call itself, you are told our price — ahead of anything else.
After that: draining, then a thorough flush of the entire system. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and neither washes away by itself. Hence it matters more. Filter cleaned or, where needed, swapped; clean diesel in; and then a check of the car. The motor is started next and checked to confirm it runs smoothly, all before we leave.
If your engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. While we travel, take a look at your insurance documents; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Winwick Quay and where it is
Winwick Quay is a suburban area located on the riverside in Cheshire, with a mix of semi-detached housing and a relatively low elevation of around 10 metres. Winwick Quay sits near the cities of Salford and Manchester, and is close to nearby places such as Longford and Hulme. Winwick Quay has a population of approximately 1476 residents, and is situated in a commuter belt with easy access to major urban centres.
AdBlue drains about Winwick Quay, and Cheshire beyond
Throughout WA postcodes, our vans that cover Winwick Quay — a residential suburb — work the surrounding spots too, Dallam and Hulme included. A postcode starting WA2 8 gets the van to you fastest.
Shifting the car isn't necessary. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Longford Park, a side street near Winwick Quay Dry Dock: we drain it where it sits. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Life Church Bethel Building.
Winwick Quay drivers: the short version
Tip no AdBlue till you've read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave it off and ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere around Cheshire.