Why It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Youlgreave
Stop reading for a moment when the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and ring 0333 366 0103. A drain and a full flush, done just where your car sits around Youlgreave, is normally all it needs when found before the motor runs. The rest of this page explains why it takes place and how to ensure it doesn't — useful if you're reading before it has happened.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Many modern diesels around Over Haddon, as well as Youlgreave, carry on two fluids; your engine takes just your diesel. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, where spraying cleans the fumes.
Separate tanks, different fillers. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled at every filling station call-out, again and again. The AdBlue side is topped up far less often, normally from a bottle, and normally by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake grows in that gap between the two.
Youlgreave: how AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the car, and running dry leads to limp mode — so a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Church Street, perhaps outside Bulls Head on the way home after work.
Next, your hand goes for the cap it knew on the old motor — since a hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
A spouted bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, after begun, keeps on. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Youlgreave or out in Conksbury.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Dale End or a forecourt around Youlgreave, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Trust the cap, not its position.
- The size. On plenty of cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Look inside your fuel flap: many motors have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- Cannot see it next to your diesel filler? In that case look below the bonnet or inside your boot — the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Matlock, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Derbyshire that is.
- Switch off after you park — flat ground, motor off, and not in a rush beside Barnes Lane on the verge.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" out loud as unscrewing it. It sounds daft. It does the trick.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the car, close the cap and check again that the diesel cap was never opened off.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Step five stays off limits.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Youlgreave already?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the motor. Keep the ignition off too, since on plenty of diesels it by itself starts the fuel pump. Diluting it with extra diesel fails, since AdBlue settles to the base rather than blending — and that is where the fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — Youlgrave Garage, Murco or any other — the staff will usually help push the vehicle clear, when you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive in Youlgreave.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the motor has already run. The next exit is where to leave when you're on the M1, under 15 miles from Youlgreave. Mileage matters — a short hop across Youlgreave makes a smaller job than heading under 25 miles to Sheffield — so say roughly how far it went.
Our arrival around Youlgreave, and what occurs next
Outside Youlgrave, All Saints' CofE (VA) Primary School, near Youlgrave Village Hall or on your own drive: wherever your car has stopped, we come to it. Those answers settle this work and our quote, and so we ask what went in, about how much, and whether it has run. That price is given on the call, before any van leaves.
Then the tank is drained and the fuel system flushed thoroughly. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and none of it clears away by itself. Hence it matters more. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Before leaving, our technicians fire it up and check that it is running properly.
If your motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. While we travel, have a look at your policy; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Youlgreave itself
Youlgreave is a village in Derbyshire, situated on the banks of the River Wye at an elevation of 186 metres. Youlgreave has a mix of housing types, with semi-detached homes being particularly prevalent, and is located near other small settlements such as Conksbury and Alport. Youlgreave is relatively small, with a population of around 704 people, and is positioned near the edge of the Peak District National Park. Youlgreave is also within commuting distance of larger cities like Sheffield, which is approximately 17 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Derbyshire, Youlgreave included
Youlgreave is a village, and the vans that cover it also work the places around it, Alport and Middleton among them, across the DE postcode area. A postcode starting DE45 1 gets the van to you fastest.
Shifting the car is not needed. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Bankside Wildlife Garden, a side street close to All Saints: we drain the car where it sits. Guessing doesn't help at the back of Wall of Words, on a boundary, or somewhere hard to pin down; phone and ask.
Youlgreave motorists: the short version
Pour nothing until you've read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Keep it switched off then ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, across Derbyshire.