How It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Bark Hill
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and the ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Bark Hill. Here in advance? In that case the rest explains why it happens and what to prevent it happening at all.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Many modern diesels around Hawthorn Bush, like those in Bark Hill, carry on two liquids; your engine takes only your diesel. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Different tanks, separate fillers. Plenty of motors share a single flap for the two, whereas some move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Topping up your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on constantly. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less often. It is in that gap that the error lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Bark Hill: how it occurs
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the vehicle, and letting it run dry means limp mode — so a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Muskoka, or at The Black Boy on the way home that evening.
The old car's cap is where the hand reaches — yet a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That's a second factor: an unfamiliar car.
Nothing halts the tip after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The Lakes or the middle of Bark Hill: it is the same few seconds either way.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Look at these before pouring, on a forecourt around Bark Hill or a driveway over in Dowles. A few seconds, no more.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally don't.
- The size. On plenty of vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler sits if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Kidderminster? Check with the person who drove the car last before you set off, rather than once the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
The day the light comes on, anywhere across Worcestershire, use this routine.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Lancaster Road.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, yes, yet it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the vehicle on.
- Stop when your tank fills or the bottle is empty; until then, tip slowly using the own spout.
- Close the cap, then look once more — making sure your diesel cap remained shut the whole time. Only then, start your car.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Never carry on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Bark Hill?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the engine. Don't switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel will not weaken it: instead, AdBlue drops to the base of your tank, right where fuel is taken from.
Ask the staff to help roll the car away from the pump if you're at a forecourt — the Texaco, the Esso or somewhere else. At home in Bark Hill? Then your car remains put.
Already run? Pull over once it's safe, then switch off. Bark Hill sits under 15 miles from the M5; on it, take the next junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Worcester, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Bark Hill.
When our engineers get there in Bark Hill, what happens?
By St Anne's CofE VC Primary School, close to Bewdley Library and Health Centre or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, our engineers come to it. Which fluid went in, the amount, and if it ran: we ask because the answers set the work and price. The quote is given on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
Emptying your tank comes next, then a thorough flush of the system. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own. After the fuel filter has been cleaned — or renewed, where required — clean diesel goes in, and finally the vehicle is tested. After that our technicians start the car and check it runs properly before we go.
If your motor hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Your insurer usually wants the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. While we travel, have a look at your policy; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Bark Hill and where it is
Bark Hill is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Worcestershire, with a mix of detached housing and local amenities. Bark Hill sits at an elevation of 83 metres, close to the nearby places of The Lakes, Hales Park, and Bewdley. Bark Hill is located near the city of Worcester, which is approximately 13.4 miles away, and is about 111.2 miles from London. Bark Hill has a population of around 4130 residents.
AdBlue drains in Bark Hill and across Worcestershire
Bark Hill is a residential suburb, and the vans that cover it also work the places near it, Hales Park and Bewdley among them, across the DY postcode area. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting DY12 2.
No need to shift the vehicle. Draining happens right there, be it a drive, a street by Riverside Elim Church, or a lay-by on the way to Bewdley riverside. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Tickenhill Palace? By a county line? Checking is better than guessing, so phone.
In short, for Bark Hill motorists
Pour no AdBlue till you've read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere in Worcestershire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same — so leave the car off and call 0333 366 0103.