AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Wyke: How It Happens and How to Avoid It
Leave the motor and ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Usually, when the motor hasn't run, it is drained and thoroughly purged where the vehicle is around Wyke. 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 does not.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Diesel feeds the motor — yet many modern diesels seen round Wyke and New Road Side hold another fluid too. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, and there a spray cleans the fumes.
There is a filler for each tank. Under one flap, side by side: that's the arrangement on a lot of cars. On others, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in your boot instead. At the pump, your diesel side gets filled all the time. Much less frequently, the AdBlue side is topped up — mostly from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. It's in that gap that the mistake lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen around Wyke?
It's rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from your car, and running dry leads to limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Westfield Lane, or outside The Low Odd on the way home that evening.
Then the car is new. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand hits for the cap it would have 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, and so nothing stops the tip after it has started. Wyke Common or the heart of Wyke: it takes the same few seconds either way.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Lower Wyke or a forecourt in Wyke.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally is not. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- Many vehicles give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Look inside your fuel flap: many motors carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by your diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park at Low Moor? Ask the person who drove it last before leaving, rather than once the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
On the day the light appears — wherever you are around West Yorkshire — a routine to use.
- Pull in somewhere level, engine off, with time in hand — not rushing on the side of Aysgarth Close.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" aloud while unscrewing it. It seems daft. It works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the vehicle on.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Spot at step two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? Then stop just there. Step five is off limits.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Wyke already?
Don't start the engine: that is where the short order of things starts. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch the vehicle on. Filling up with diesel won't dilute it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the base of that tank, right where the fuel is drawn from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it is the Esso or the Shell, ask the staff to help roll the vehicle clear of the petrol pump. Your own drive around Wyke is the place it should stay.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Wyke sits under 3 miles from the M62; there, take the next exit. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Wyke is smaller a job than a run of under 5 miles towards Bradford, so say.
Wyke: what occurs when our technicians arrive
The van comes to your car anywhere it has come to rest — your own drive, beside St Mary the Virgin, or by Shirley Manor Primary School. What liquid was put in, the amount, and if it ran: we ask because the replies decide both work and quote. You hear that price by phone, before anyone sets off.
Then that tank is emptied and the system rinsed thoroughly. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. After that we start the engine and confirm it runs properly before we leave.
Using pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your engine has not run need about half an hour after we are there. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork an insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Before we get there, have a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Wyke, for a moment
Wyke is a suburban area in West Yorkshire, situated approximately 3.8 miles from Bradford and 168.6 miles from London. Wyke sits at an elevation of 173 metres, characterised by semi-detached housing and a mix of local amenities. Wyke is close to nearby places such as Wyke Common and Upper Wyke, and is home to a population of around 5689 residents. Wyke forms a distinct residential community within the wider Bradford urban area.
AdBlue drains about Wyke, and West Yorkshire beyond
Upper Wyke and Upper Common are among the places around Wyke, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, throughout BD postcodes. Fastest of all: quote a BD12 9 postcode for the van.
The vehicle doesn't need to shift. Wherever it sits — near Cenotaph, on a lay-by heading to Wyke Village Green, at home — that is where it gets cleared. Tricky to pin down, like the back of St. James and St. Phillip Church? Close to a county line? Asking is better than assuming, so phone.
In short, for Wyke drivers
First, the cap; after that, the pour. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere in West Yorkshire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same — and so leave the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103.