How It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Baddeley Edge
Pause reading a minute when your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and call 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, carried out just where your car sits around Baddeley Edge, is usually what it takes when found before the motor runs. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Not one fluid but two: that is what plenty of modern diesels near Baddeley Edge and Carmountside run, with diesel feeding the motor. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Some cars keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others have the two together behind one flap. Filling your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on constantly. The AdBlue side is topped up far less frequently, usually from a bottle, and usually by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. The error lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank happens around Baddeley Edge
It's seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Hurry comes from the warning. Your car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a driveway off Flash Lane, or on the way home in the car park outside Travellers Rest.
Then the vehicle is strange. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, once started, keeps on. Whether it happens in Light Oaks or the middle of Baddeley Edge, it's the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Be it a Baddeley Edge forecourt or a drive over in Jack Hayes, spend a few seconds on these before any is poured in.
- Read the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually aren't.
- Many cars give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Check inside the fuel flap: plenty of vehicles have a label there saying 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.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Longport? Ask whoever drove the car last before you set off, rather than when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
Anywhere around Staffordshire the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Turn off once parked — flat ground, motor off, and never rushed by Red Lane at the roadside.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" out loud as unscrewing it. It sounds daft. It works.
- The two under a single flap? Then confirm the lid on your diesel filler stays shut before raising the bottle.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap, then look once more — making sure the diesel filler remained shut the whole time. After that, start the car.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Don't go on to step five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Baddeley Edge?
Don't start your motor: that's how the short order of things starts. Keep the ignition off as well, because on many diesels it by itself starts your fuel pump. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is pulled from.
The attendants at Shell, Esso or any forecourt will normally help pushing your car away when you ask. Your own driveway around Baddeley Edge is where it stays.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Baddeley Edge lies under 10 miles from the M6; there, take the next junction. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Baddeley Edge is smaller work than a trip of under 3 miles to Stoke-on-Trent, so say.
When our technicians turn up in Baddeley Edge, what happens?
Our van reaches the car wherever it has come to rest — your own driveway, near St. Philip and St. James, or by Hillside Primary School. Those answers settle this work and the price, and so we ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it's run. No one sets off until you've heard our quote over the phone.
The fuel system is then rinsed thoroughly, once that tank is emptied. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Next our technicians start the engine and make sure it runs correctly before we leave.
Unrun cars mostly need a half-hour visit from arrival. The kit is safe on a live filling station, and hushed enough for a driveway late at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Baddeley Edge, for a moment
Baddeley Edge is a suburban area situated near Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, with a mix of semi-detached housing and local amenities. Baddeley Edge sits at an elevation of 204 metres, overlooking the surrounding countryside and nearby settlements like Light Oaks and Baddeley Green. Baddeley Edge is located approximately 2.8 miles from Stoke-on-Trent, making it a convenient residential area for those working in the city. Baddeley Edge has a population of around 3304 people, according to recent estimates.
AdBlue drains around Baddeley Edge, and Staffordshire beyond
Baddeley Edge is a residential suburb, and the vans that cover it also work the places near it, Baddeley Green and Milton among them, across the ST postcode area. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting ST2 7.
Moving the vehicle is not necessary. The drain happens on the spot, whether a drive, a road near Moorlands Village Hall, or a lay-by towards Greenway Hall Golf Club. Guessing doesn't help at the back of Milton United F.C., close to a border, or anywhere awkward to describe; ring and check.
For Baddeley Edge people, the short version
Always, the cap; then, the tip. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it wherever it is, anywhere around Staffordshire: keep the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103.