How It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Balance Hill
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and your ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. Normally, when the motor hasn't run, it's drained and thoroughly cleaned where the car sits in Balance Hill. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the page explains the why it occurs and the how to avoid it for good.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Diesel goes to the motor — yet plenty of newer diesels seen about Balance Hill and Blounts Green hold a second fluid as well. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There is a filler on each tank. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. Topping up the diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. Seldom topped up, AdBlue normally comes from a bottle, poured by someone who has to stop and think what cap it needs. The slip lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank take place around Balance Hill?
It is seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Hurry comes from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a driveway off Avocet Close, or heading home in the car park at Black Swan.
Next, the hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old vehicle — since a rental car, a new car or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
A spout-topped bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, after started, keeps on. It takes seconds, whether out in Mount Pleasant or right in the heart of Balance Hill.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in The Wharf or a forecourt around Balance Hill, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Read the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue caps are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually aren't.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on many cars, the AdBlue one.
- Check inside the fuel flap: many motors carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by the diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at Uttoxeter, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
Anywhere across Staffordshire the light comes on, this 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 Kingfisher Way.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you have located your filler and read the cap.
- Both behind a single flap? So make sure the cap on your diesel filler is still closed ahead of raising the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Don't carry on to stage five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Balance Hill?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the engine. Don't switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Diluting it with more diesel won't work, because AdBlue settles to the base rather than blending — and that's where your fuel is drawn from.
Ask the attendants to help push the car away from the petrol pump if you're on a forecourt — the Tesco, the BP or somewhere else. At home around Balance Hill? So the vehicle remains where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your motor has already run. On the M6, under 15 miles from Balance Hill, that means the next junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Lichfield, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Balance Hill.
Balance Hill: what happens when our technicians get there
We come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Picknalls First School, close to GT Fitness or on your own driveway. The replies decide the work and the quote, so our engineers ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it's run. Nobody sets off before you've had the quote over the phone.
The fuel system is then purged thoroughly, after the tank is emptied. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and none of that clears away unaided. Hence it counts more. Filter cleaned or, if needed, swapped; fresh diesel in; and then a test of your car. The motor is fired up next and tested to be sure it runs properly, all before we go.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour once our technicians arrive, provided your motor has not run — and the pumps we use are safe on a busy forecourt yet quiet after dark outside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Balance Hill and where it is
Balance Hill is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Staffordshire, with a mix of housing types although predominantly detached homes. Balance Hill has a relatively low elevation of 99 metres and is located near several other places, including Mount Pleasant and Uttoxeter. Balance Hill is also within commuting distance of larger cities, with Lichfield just 14.6 miles away and London approximately 120.7 miles to the southeast.
AdBlue drains across Staffordshire, Balance Hill included
As a residential suburb, Balance Hill shares its vans surrounding areas — Uttoxeter, Highwood — all the way across ST postcodes and the surrounding area around them. Quickest of all: give a ST14 8 postcode for the van.
The car remains where it is. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street close to Saint Mary's Church, a lay-by on the way to Brooklands Close Park, a drive. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Uttoxeter Leisure Centre? Close to a border? Asking beats assuming, so phone.
In short, for Balance Hill motorists
Pour nothing till you've read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway, leave it off and ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere across Staffordshire.