AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in All Saints: How It Happens and How to Prevent It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and the ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in All Saints. 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.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Not one fluid but two: that is how many newer diesels around All Saints and Winson Green run, with diesel for the engine. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, and there spraying treats the fumes.
There's a filler on each tank. Plenty of motors share a single flap for both, whereas some move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in at every filling station call-out, again and again. Far less commonly, the AdBlue side gets filled — normally from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. It's in the gap that the error happens.
All Saints: how AdBlue in the diesel tank happens
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
Haste follows from the warning. Your car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a driveway off Lodge Road, or on the way home in the car park at The Railway.
Then, the hand goes for the cap it knew on the old vehicle — because a hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't.
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 once it has started. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of All Saints or out in Gib Heath.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Newtown or a forecourt in All Saints, check these. They take a few seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally isn't. Read it instead of going by position.
- Many vehicles fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many cars say there which fuel goes where.
- Can't see it next to your diesel inlet? Then check below the bonnet or inside the boot — the owner's manual will say where.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Jewellery Quarter? Ask the person who drove the car last before leaving, rather than when the light goes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
On the day the light appears — wherever you are across West Midlands — a simple routine to follow.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Goode Avenue.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew it. It seems silly. It does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave it on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Find during the second or third step that the bottle went into the diesel filler? That's where you stop. Skip stage five entirely.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around All Saints?
Short list, then. Top of that: the engine stays unstarted. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels as soon as the ignition is switched on — so leave it off. Topping up with diesel won't thin it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the base of your tank, just where fuel is taken from.
On a forecourt — JET, Tesco or another — the staff will usually help roll the car clear, when you ask. On your own drive around All Saints? So the car stays where it is.
Already run? Stop when it is sensible, then switch off. The next junction is the place to come off when you are on the Aston Expressway, under 3 miles from All Saints. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Birmingham, under 3 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across All Saints.
What happens when we arrive in All Saints
Our technicians come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Brookfields Primary School, near Life Community Church or on your own drive. Both the work and the quote rest on three answers — what liquid, which amount, and if it has run — so our engineers ask. Nobody sets off until you've had the quote by phone.
The system is then purged thoroughly, after your tank is cleared. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. A test is last: before that, clean diesel is added, and the filter is flushed or changed as needed. Next our technicians start the car and confirm it runs correctly before we go.
If your engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. The insurer usually wants the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both once the job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. Wrong-fuel cover is part of many insurance policies — and so use the wait to check yours.
About All Saints
All Saints is a suburban area in the West Midlands, situated near the River Rea and close to the city centre of Birmingham. All Saints has a mix of housing types, but is predominantly characterised by terraced homes. All Saints is located near other local areas, including Gib Heath, Hockley, and Brookfields, and is about 1.2 miles from Birmingham city centre.
AdBlue drains round All Saints, and West Midlands beyond
Throughout B postcodes, the vans covering All Saints — a residential suburb — work the surrounding places too, Brookfields and Hockley included. Quickest of all: quote a B18 5 postcode to the van.
There's no need to move your car. Anywhere it stands — near Bhagwan Valmiki Ashram Centre, in a lay-by en route to Richmond Garden, on a drive — that is where it is cleared. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of New Testament Church of God, ring and ask instead of assuming.
All Saints drivers: the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere around West Midlands, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless — and so leave the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103.