AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Woodvale: How It Occurs and How to Avoid It
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then put this page aside for now, keep your ignition and engine off, then call 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, done just where the car stands around Woodvale, is normally what it takes when caught before the engine runs. Nothing happened yet? Below, the page covers the why it occurs and the ways to avoid it for good.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Many current diesels on the roads about Woodvale and Hillside carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Different tanks, separate fillers. Other motors keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others have the two side by side under one flap. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. Far less often, the AdBlue side gets filled — mostly from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. Mistakes happen in the gap between them.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place around Woodvale
It is rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Hurry comes from the warning. The car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a driveway off Cornwall Way, or heading home in the car park at The Spitfire.
New-to-you motors come next, as well. Hire cars, new motors and company vehicles put their fillers differently, and habit reaches for the cap it used on the old one.
Third, the spout goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in just as easily, and once the pour starts, no part halts it. It's a few seconds, whether in Ainsdale or right in the heart of Woodvale.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Check these before pouring, at a forecourt in Woodvale or a drive out in Formby. A few seconds, that's all.
- Check the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually aren't.
- On many motors, size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Look for it.
- The handbook shows which it is if your filler is not next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Ainsdale.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
For the day the light comes on — wherever it is around Merseyside — a routine to follow.
- Turn off once parked — level ground, engine stopped, and not in a rush by Gleneagles Drive on the verge.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, yes, but it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Finish when your tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; until then, tip gently using the own spout.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Leave out stage five entirely.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Woodvale already?
Do not start the motor: that is how the short order of things begins. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch the vehicle on. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
The staff at Shell, EG On the Move or another forecourt will usually help pushing the car away when you ask. If you're on your own driveway around Woodvale, leave the car where it is.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Leave the M58 — under 10 miles out of Woodvale — at the next exit. Mileage counts — a quick hop across Woodvale makes a smaller job than driving under 15 miles towards Liverpool — so say roughly how far it went.
Our arrival around Woodvale, and what occurs next
The van reaches your car wherever it stopped — your own drive, beside Woodvale Chapel, or by Kings Meadow Primary School and Early Years Education Centre. Which liquid got in, the amount, and if it ran: we ask since the replies decide both work and quote. The quote is given on the call, before any van leaves.
Your system is then rinsed thoroughly, after your tank is drained. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and none of it washes away unaided. Hence it matters more. Once your filter is cleaned — or replaced, if required — clean diesel is added, and finally the car gets tested. We don't leave until it has been fired up and is running smoothly.
With pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where the motor has not run take roughly half an hour after we are there. No money in advance; you settle up on the day. At the end, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Woodvale
Woodvale is a coastal suburban area in Merseyside, situated near the towns of Ainsdale and Freshfield. Woodvale has a relatively low elevation of around 10 metres above sea level and is located approximately 12.9 miles from Liverpool. Woodvale is characterized by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock, which reflects the typical residential architecture of the region. Woodvale is also part of the larger North West England conurbation, with London being around 189 miles to the south.
AdBlue drains across Merseyside, Woodvale included
Woodvale is a residential suburb, and the teams that cover it also work the towns near it, Ainsdale-on-Sea and Freshfield among them, across the PR postcode area. Quote a postcode that starts PR8 3, and our van gets there quickest.
The car remains where it is. Draining takes place right there, whether a driveway, a street by Ainsdale St John, or a layby on the way to Formby Wood. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Ainsdale Methodist Church.
The short version for Woodvale people
Before you pour, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere across Merseyside, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — and so leave the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103.