Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Wolsingham: Why It Happens
Pause reading a minute if the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then phone 0333 366 0103. In Wolsingham, finding it before your motor runs usually leaves a drain and a full flush where it stands. Not happened yet? Below, the rest of the page covers the reasons it happens and the ways to prevent it altogether.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Plenty of newer diesels in Tow Law, as well as Wolsingham, carry on two liquids; your motor gets only your diesel. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust gas and cleans it.
Each tank comes with one filler of its own. Other motors put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others place both together under one flap. At the pump, your diesel side gets filled all the time. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less frequently, normally from a bottle, and usually by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. It is in the gap that the slip happens.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place in Wolsingham
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from your car, and letting it run dry leads to limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off A689, or at Black Bull on the way home after work.
Unfamiliar motors come next, too. Hire cars, new cars and company cars put their fillers in new places, and habit reaches for the cap it used on the old one.
Third, the bottle fits: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in as easily, and once the tip begins, no part stops it. Thornley or the heart of Wolsingham: it takes the same few seconds either way.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Craigside or a forecourt in Wolsingham, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Check the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue ones are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally are not.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Look inside your fuel flap: plenty of vehicles have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- Can't see it beside the diesel filler? Then check below the bonnet or inside your boot — the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before knows. Ask as you pick up a rental or fleet car — at Bishop Auckland's car park, perhaps — not once the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
The day the light goes on, anywhere in Durham, follow this routine.
- Stop on level, engine off, with time to spare — not hurried on the side of East End.
- 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 remains on. When both share a flap, confirm it is closed before lifting the bottle.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Before starting your car, close the cap and look again that the diesel cap never opened off.
Find during the second or third stage that AdBlue went in the wrong filler? That is where you stop. Step five is off limits.
Wolsingham: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the engine. Leave the ignition off too, since on many diesels it alone runs your pump. Filling up with diesel won't thin it: instead, AdBlue drops to the base of that tank, right where the fuel is taken from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it is the Shell or the Helme Park Service Station, ask the staff to help roll the car clear of the petrol pump. Your own driveway around Wolsingham is where it should stay.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. On the A1(M), under 15 miles from Wolsingham, that means the next exit. A short hop across Wolsingham is a smaller job than a run towards Durham, under 15 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
Wolsingham: what takes place when our engineers turn up
Wherever your car has stopped, be it by Wolsingham Primary School, near Wolsingham Library or at home, our van comes to it. The answers settle this work and the quote, and so our engineers ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it has run. On the call itself, you are told the price — before dispatch.
Then that tank is cleared and the system cleaned 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 does not wash out on its own. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Before we leave, we start the car and make sure that it is running smoothly.
With pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your motor hasn't run need roughly half an hour once our technicians arrive. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents an insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. It is worth looking at your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Wolsingham
Wolsingham is a small town situated on the River Wear in County Durham, with a population of around 2428 people. Wolsingham sits at an elevation of 140 metres, surrounded by rolling countryside and nearby villages such as Thornley and High Stoop. Wolsingham is characterized by its predominantly terraced housing stock, reflecting its historical development as a riverside settlement. Wolsingham is located 12.4 miles from the city of Durham and 234.2 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Durham, Wolsingham included
As a riverside town, Wolsingham shares its vans nearby places — High Stoop, Inkerman — all the way through DL postcodes and the wider area around them. A postcode starting DL13 3 gets our van to you fastest.
There's no need to move your car. Draining takes place on the spot, whether a drive, a road near Town Hall, or a lay-by on the way to Duck Lane. Assuming won't help at the back of Wolsingham War Memorial, close to a boundary, or somewhere awkward to describe; ring and ask.
For Wolsingham people, the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere in Durham, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway — so leave the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103.