Amblecote: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Pause reading a minute when your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then phone 0333 366 0103. In Amblecote, finding it before your motor turns normally means draining and a thorough flush where it stands. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the page covers the why it occurs and the ways to avoid it altogether.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Plenty of modern diesels around Stambermill, as well as Amblecote, carry on two liquids; your engine gets only your diesel. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust stream to clean it.
Each tank has a filler of its own. Some cars keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others have both side by side under one flap. Topping up your diesel side at the pump goes on all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less regularly, normally from a bottle, and normally by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. The slip lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs in Amblecote
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
Hurry comes from the warning. The car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a drive off Vicarage Road, or on the way home in the car park at The Moorings Tavern.
Then, your hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old vehicle — since a rental car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
Nothing halts the pour after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it occurs in Stourbridge or the middle of Amblecote, it's the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Be it a Amblecote forecourt or a driveway over in Old Swinford, spend a few seconds over these before any is poured in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally isn't. Read it instead of going by position.
- On plenty of vehicles, the size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler is if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Stourbridge Town, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across West Midlands that is.
- Switch off after you park — flat ground, engine stopped, and never in a rush by Church Avenue on the verge.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you have located the filler and read the cap.
- Both under one flap? Then make sure the lid on the diesel filler stays shut ahead of raising the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before starting your car, shut the cap and check again that your diesel cap was never opened off.
Spot at step two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? Then stop just there. Leave out step five entirely.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Amblecote already?
Short order, then. Top of that: the motor remains off. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels the moment the ignition is switched on — so leave it off. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is drawn from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it is the BP or the Shell, ask the staff to help push your car clear of the petrol pump. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway in Amblecote.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. On the M5, under 10 miles from Amblecote, that means the next junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Wolverhampton, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Amblecote.
When our engineers get there in Amblecote, what occurs?
Wherever your car has stopped, whether by Amblecote Primary School, near Holy Trinity or on your own drive, our van travels to it. Those answers decide the work and the price, so our technicians ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it has run. That quote is given on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
Draining your tank comes next, then a thorough flush of the fuel system. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. We do not leave until it has been started and is running properly.
If the motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Nothing in advance; you settle up on the day. At the end, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Amblecote and where it is
Amblecote is a suburban area in the West Midlands, situated on the banks of a river at an elevation of around 88 metres. Amblecote lies approximately 8 miles south of Wolverhampton and is close to nearby towns such as Stourbridge and Wollaston. Amblecote has a population of around 6235 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Amblecote is located about 108 miles northwest of London, making it a commuter hub for those working in the capital.
Amblecote and West Midlands: AdBlue drains across the area
Withymoor Village and Wollaston are among the places around Amblecote, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, throughout DY postcodes. A postcode starting DY8 4 gets the van to you fastest.
Your car does not need to shift. Wherever it stands — beside Bonded Warehouse, in a lay-by en route to Black Country Millennium Forest, on a drive — that is where it gets emptied. Tricky to pin down, like the back of The Stour Bridge? By a county line? Asking is better than assuming, so phone.
In short, for Amblecote motorists
Pour no AdBlue until you've read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Leave the vehicle switched off then ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, across West Midlands.