Admaston: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Leave your engine and ignition off and call 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. A drain and a full flush, done just where the vehicle sits around Admaston, is usually all it needs if found before the engine runs. The rest of this page covers why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't — useful if you are reading ahead of time.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Many newer diesels on the roads around Admaston and Wrockwardine carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it.
Each tank has its own filler. Other motors put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others place the two side by side behind one flap. Filling the diesel side at the pump happens all the time. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less frequently. The mistake lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank happens in Admaston
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
On a drive off Wellington Road before work, or in the car park at The Pheasant Inn heading home: that's where the rushed top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it is gone, limp mode follows.
Next, the hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old car — since a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
No part halts the pour after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It's a few seconds, be it out in Shawbirch or bang in the heart of Admaston.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Rushmoor or a forecourt around Admaston, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says which it lives if your filler isn't next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Wellington (Shropshire).
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
Anywhere across Shropshire the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Burnell Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- The two behind a single flap? Then confirm the cap on the diesel filler is still closed ahead of raising the bottle.
- Finish once your tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; until then, tip gently using the built-in spout.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Spot at stage two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? So stop right there. Step five is off limits.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Admaston already?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your motor. Leave your ignition off too, since on plenty of diesels switching it on by itself starts the fuel pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is pulled from — so do not top up with diesel to thin it.
The attendants at Shell, Springhill or another forecourt will usually help pushing the vehicle away when asked. If you are on your own driveway around Admaston, leave the vehicle where it sits.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. The next junction is the place to come off if you are on the M54, under 3 miles from Admaston. A short hop across Admaston is a smaller job than a run towards Wolverhampton, under 25 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
Admaston: what happens when we get there
The van comes to the vehicle anywhere it stopped — your own driveway, near Admaston House, or by St Peter's Bratton Church of England Academy. Which liquid was put in, the quantity, and whether it ran: our technicians ask since the answers decide both work and quote. The price comes over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
After that: draining, then a thorough flush of the whole system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and none of it clears out by itself. That is why it matters more. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. After that our technicians start the engine and confirm it runs properly before we go.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour once our engineers get there, provided the motor hasn't run — and the pumps we use are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet after dark outside a house. Nothing in advance; you settle up that day. At the end, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies — so use the wait to check yours.
About Admaston, briefly
Admaston is a suburban area situated on the shores of a lake in Shropshire, with a mix of detached housing and natural scenery. Admaston sits at an elevation of 84 metres, providing views across the surrounding landscape. Admaston is located near several other small communities, including Shawbirch, Dothill, and Bratton, and is within commuting distance of Wolverhampton. Admaston has a population of around 2406 people, living in predominantly detached homes.
AdBlue drains across Shropshire, Admaston included
Throughout TF postcodes, the teams that cover Admaston — a residential suburb — work the surrounding locations too, Bratton and Dothill among them. A postcode starting TF5 0 gets the van to you fastest.
Moving the vehicle isn't necessary. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street near St Peter, Wrockwardine, a lay-by on the way to the green space at the edge of the village, a driveway. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of All Saints.
The short version for Admaston drivers
Before you tip, read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Leave the vehicle switched off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, throughout Shropshire.