Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Wooler: Why It Occurs
Keep your engine and ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. In Wooler, catching it before the motor runs usually means a drain and a thorough flush on the spot. The remainder of this page explains why it takes place and how to ensure it doesn't — useful if you are reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Many newer diesels in Middleton Hall, as well as Wooler, run on two liquids; the motor gets just the diesel. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, and there spraying cleans the gas.
There's a filler on each tank. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the layout on many cars. On others, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. At the pump, the diesel side is topped up constantly. The AdBlue side is filled far less commonly, usually from a bottle, and normally by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. It is in that gap that the error happens.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs around Wooler
It is seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the car goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Glendale Road before work, or in the car park at The Angel Inn on the way home.
The old car's filler is where your hand reaches — but a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That's the second thing: a strange motor.
No part halts the pour once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Wooler or out in Humbleton.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Look at these first, at a forecourt in Wooler or a drive over in Akeld. A few seconds, that's all.
- Read the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually are not.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Check inside your fuel flap: plenty of vehicles have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says which it lives when the filler is not next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park outside the nearest station? Ask the person who drove the vehicle last before leaving, rather than when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
Anywhere across Northumberland the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of High Street.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, yes, but it works.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, then check once more — confirm the diesel cap remained shut the whole time. After that, start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Do not go on to step five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Wooler?
Short list, then. First: your engine remains off. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels as soon as your ignition is switched on — and so keep it off. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is drawn from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
Ask the attendants to help roll your car away from the pump if you are on a forecourt — the Murco, the JET or somewhere else. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive in Wooler.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the engine has already run. The next junction is the place to come off when you're on the A167(M), under 50 miles from Wooler. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Newcastle upon Tyne, under 50 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Wooler.
Wooler: what happens when our engineers arrive
Anywhere the car has stopped, be it outside Wooler First School, beside Alderman Gilbert Oliver or on your own drive, our van comes to it. Our engineers ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it's run, because those replies decide the work and the price. You get that price on the phone, before anyone heads out.
Emptying your tank comes next, followed by a full flush of your system. Much more than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: crystals build up, certain metals corrode, and none of that clears out on its own, however long it is left. Once the fuel filter is cleaned — or renewed, if required — fresh diesel goes in, and then your vehicle gets tested. We don't leave until it has been fired up and is running smoothly.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour once our engineers arrive, as long as the motor has not run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a busy forecourt yet quiet after dark beside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Wooler itself
Wooler is a small town situated in the north of Northumberland, on the banks of the River Till at an elevation of around 126 metres. Wooler lies near the Cheviot Hills, close to the villages of Humbleton and Low Humbleton, and is about 42 miles northwest of Newcastle upon Tyne. Wooler has a population of approximately 1930 residents, living mostly in semi-detached housing. Wooler is located about 290 miles north of London, making it a relatively remote town in northeastern England.
AdBlue drains in Wooler and across Northumberland
Being a riverside town, Wooler has the same vans as nearby places — Low Humbleton, Haugh Head — all the way through NE postcodes and the surrounding area around them. A postcode starting NE71 6 gets our van to you fastest.
The vehicle stays where it is. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Tower Hill, a side street near Wooler Library: our technicians drain the vehicle where it is. Awkward to pin down, like the back of St Mary's C of E Church? Close to a county line? Asking beats assuming, so ring.
In short, for Wooler people
Always, the cap; after that, the pour. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave it off and phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it waits, anywhere around Northumberland.