AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Bilston: Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and the ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Bilston. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Plenty of newer diesels in Highfields, as well as Bilston, run on two fluids; your engine gets just the diesel. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust stream and cleans it.
Different tanks, different fillers. Some vehicles put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty more place the two side by side under one flap. The diesel side is topped up at the pump all the time. Much less regularly, the AdBlue side gets filled — mostly from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. That gap is where the mistake lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank take place in Bilston?
It is rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a drive off High Street before work, or in the car park at The Sir Henry Newbolt heading home: that's where the rushed top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it is gone, limp mode follows.
Unfamiliar motors come second, too. Rentals, new cars and company motors put their fillers in new places, and the hand goes for the cap it used on the old one.
A spouted bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, after started, carries on. It takes seconds, be it in Millfields or right in the heart of Bilston.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Check these before pouring, on a forecourt in Bilston or a drive out in Bradley. A few seconds, no more.
- Position misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones are often blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually don't.
- On plenty of motors, the size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Open the flap and check for a label — plenty of cars mark which belongs in each inlet just there.
- Cannot find it beside the diesel filler? In that case look beneath the bonnet or in your boot — the owner's manual says which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Coseley.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
Wherever across West Midlands the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Stop on level, motor off, with time to spare — never hurried on the side of Church Street.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew it. It sounds daft. It does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave it on.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Stage five is out.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Bilston?
Do not start the engine: that is how the short order of things starts. Don't switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is drawn from — so do not top up with diesel to thin it.
The attendants at Shell, Morrisons or any forecourt will usually help pushing the car clear if you ask. At home in Bilston? So the vehicle remains where it is.
Already run? Pull over once it is safe, then switch off. Bilston sits under 3 miles from the M6; there, take the next junction. Mileage matters — a quick hop across Bilston is a smaller job than heading under 3 miles towards Wolverhampton — so say roughly how far it went.
What occurs when our engineers arrive around Bilston
The van reaches the vehicle wherever it has come to rest — your own driveway, near the centre, or by Loxdale Primary School. Our technicians ask what went in, about how much, and whether it has run, because the answers determine the work and our quote. You get that quote on the phone, before anybody heads out.
Then the tank is emptied and the fuel system cleaned thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. We don't go until it has been started and is running smoothly.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour once we arrive, provided your motor has not run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet at night outside a house. Your insurer usually wants an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both once the job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. Before we get there, have a look at your insurance documents; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Bilston
Bilston is a town situated on the River Tame in the West Midlands, approximately 2.6 miles southeast of Wolverhampton. Bilston sits at an elevation of around 146 metres, with nearby neighbourhoods including Millfields, Freezeland, and Green Lanes. Bilston has a population of around 24,798 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Bilston is located about 110.5 miles northwest of London, making it a commuter town with access to major cities.
AdBlue drains around Bilston and across West Midlands
As a riverside town, Bilston has the same vans as nearby places — Freezeland, Green Lanes — right through WV postcodes and the surrounding area around them. Fastest of all: give a WV14 0 postcode to the van.
The car does not need to move. Draining happens right there, whether a drive, a road near Alderman Herbert Beach JP 1874-1953, or a layby on the way to Bilston Urban Village Nature Reserve. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Tools of the Trade.
The short version for Bilston drivers
Always, the cap; then, the pour. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave the vehicle off and ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it waits, anywhere around West Midlands.