Balsall Heath: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Leave the engine and ignition off and call 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Caught before your motor runs, it is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Balsall Heath. Reading in advance? In that case the rest covers why it comes about and how to prevent it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of modern diesels on the roads about Balsall Heath and Moseley carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. Its own tank holds it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, and there spraying treats the fumes.
Every tank comes with a filler of its own. Under one flap, side by side: that's the layout on many vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in the boot instead. Diesel goes in at each filling station visit, week in, week out. Rarely filled, AdBlue normally comes from a bottle, tipped by a driver who has to stop and think what filler to use. The slip lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank occur in Balsall Heath?
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the vehicle, and letting it run out means limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Fenter Close, perhaps outside The Victoria on the way home after work.
Then, the hand goes for the cap it knew on the old motor — because a hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't.
Third, the bottle goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in as easily, and after the pour begins, no part halts it. It takes seconds, be it in Showell Green or bang in the heart of Balsall Heath.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Check these first, on a forecourt in Balsall Heath or a driveway over in Sparkbrook. Seconds, that's all.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally is not. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- Many motors give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Open the flap and look for a label — plenty of cars show what goes in which filler right there.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler is if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Moseley Village.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
Anywhere around West Midlands the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Trafalgar Road, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park and switch off first.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" aloud while unscrewing it. It seems silly. It does the trick.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where both share a flap, make sure it is closed before the bottle comes up.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check again, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Discover during the second or third stage that AdBlue went into the diesel filler? That's where you stop. Don't carry on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Balsall Heath?
Don't start your motor: that's how the short order of things starts. Don't switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
On a forecourt — Texaco, Esso or any other — the staff will usually help roll your car clear, when you ask. At home in Balsall Heath? So the car remains where it is.
Already started? Pull over once it's safe, then switch off. Come off the Aston Expressway — under 3 miles out of Balsall Heath — at the first junction. About how far did it go? Hopping across Balsall Heath is less a job than a run of under 3 miles towards Birmingham, and so say.
When our engineers arrive in Balsall Heath, what occurs?
Our van reaches the vehicle wherever it stopped — your own driveway, near Creation Climbing Centre & Skate Park, or by Ark Tindal Primary Academy. Both the work and our quote rest on three answers — which liquid, which amount, and if it's run — so our engineers ask. The price comes over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
The fuel system is then flushed thoroughly, after the tank is drained. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and neither washes away unaided. Hence it matters more. The filter flushed or, where needed, replaced; clean diesel in; then a check of your car. We do not go until it has been started and is running properly.
Using pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where your engine hasn't run take about half an hour after our engineers are there. 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, and so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Balsall Heath, briefly
Balsall Heath is a suburban area in the West Midlands, situated approximately 1.9 miles south of Birmingham city centre. Balsall Heath sits at an elevation of around 134 metres, with its terraced housing stock reflecting the area's historical development. Balsall Heath is bordered by other local areas, including Showell Green, Cannon Hill, and Highgate, and is home to a population of around 15,000 residents. Balsall Heath is located about 99 miles northwest of London, making it a significant residential hub within the wider Birmingham urban area.
AdBlue drains around Balsall Heath and across West Midlands
Cannon Hill and Highgate are among the places near Balsall Heath, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, throughout B postcodes. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting B12 8.
Moving your car isn't necessary. Anywhere it sits — beside Bangladeshi Isalmic Social Organisation & Modina Mosque, on a layby en route to Seven Streets Pocket Park, at home — that is where it is drained. Assuming won't help at the back of Museum of Islamic Arts and Heritage, close to a boundary, or somewhere awkward to describe; ring and check.
For Balsall Heath drivers, the short version
Read the cap before you tip. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Leave the car switched off then call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, across West Midlands.