Wrawby: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then set this page aside for now, keep your ignition and engine off, then call 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Wrawby. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Many modern diesels in Island Carr, as well as Wrawby, run on two fluids; your engine takes just the diesel. The exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the fumes to clean it, from a separate tank.
There is a filler on every tank. Other vehicles keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty more place both side by side behind one flap. Filling your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less often. It's in that gap that the error happens.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Wrawby: how it takes place
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
Haste comes from the warning. The vehicle warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a driveway off Little Lane, or heading home in the car park at The Jolly Miller.
New-to-you cars come second, as well. Hire cars, new cars and company vehicles place their fillers differently, and the hand goes for the cap it used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the pour after it has started. Whether it takes place in Brigg or the middle of Wrawby, it is the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Check these first, at a forecourt around Wrawby or a drive over in Scawby Brook. A few seconds, that's all.
- Read the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally aren't.
- Many motors fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Look inside your fuel flap: many cars carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- Can't see it next to your diesel inlet? In that case check beneath the bonnet or in your boot — the handbook says where.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Brigg, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
Anywhere in Lincolnshire the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Vicarage Road, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park and switch off first.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and 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.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Find during the second or third step that the bottle went in the wrong filler? That is where you stop. Don't carry on to step five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Wrawby already?
Short order, then. First: your motor remains unstarted. Don't switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Topping up with diesel will not dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the base of the tank, just where fuel is drawn from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it is the Tesco or the JET, ask the staff to help roll the car away from the petrol pump. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive in Wrawby.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. The next exit means where to leave if you are on the M180, under a mile from Wrawby. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Kingston upon Hull, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Wrawby.
What happens when our engineers turn up around Wrawby
Our technicians come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Wrawby St Mary's CofE Primary School, close to St Mary or on your own drive. Our engineers ask what got in, about how much, and whether it has run, since those replies decide this work and our price. Nobody sets off until you've heard the price by phone.
The fuel system is then purged thoroughly, after that tank is cleared. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and none of that clears away unaided. That is why it counts more. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. We don't go until it has been fired up and is running correctly.
Unstarted cars usually mean a half-hour job from the moment we arrive. The kit is fine on a live filling station, and hushed enough for a residential street after dark. The insurer will ask for an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours once this job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. While we travel, take a look at your policy; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Wrawby
Wrawby is a village in northern Lincolnshire, situated inland at an elevation of around 35 metres, and is located near the towns of Brigg and Kingston upon Hull. Wrawby has a population of approximately 1525 residents and predominantly features detached housing. Wrawby is positioned about 13 miles from Kingston upon Hull and around 143 miles from London, placing it in a relatively rural setting within the wider region.
AdBlue drains around Wrawby and across Lincolnshire
Being a rural village, Wrawby shares its vans nearby places — Westrum, Coskills — right across DN postcodes and the wider area around them. Fastest of all: quote a DN20 8 postcode for the van.
The vehicle stays put. Anywhere it stands — beside Brigg Methodist Church, on a lay-by en route to Kings Avenue Gardens, on a drive — that is where it is emptied. Assuming doesn't help at the back of Burial Ground, close to a border, or anywhere hard to pin down; phone and ask.
The short version for Wrawby people
Pour no AdBlue until you've read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere in Lincolnshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — and so leave the car off then call 0333 366 0103.