Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Blythe Marsh: Why It Happens
Stop here a minute when the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and ring 0333 366 0103. In Blythe Marsh, catching it before the engine runs usually means a drain and a thorough flush where it stands. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it does not.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Many modern diesels in Draycott in the Moors, like those in Blythe Marsh, carry on two liquids; the motor takes only the diesel. AdBlue goes to your 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. Many of motors have a single flap for the two, while some put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in on every forecourt call-out, week in, week out. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less often, normally from a bottle, and normally by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the error lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank occur in Blythe Marsh?
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
Hurry comes from the warning. Your car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a drive off Draycott Old Road, or on the way home in the car park outside The Roebuck.
Unfamiliar vehicles come next, as well. Rentals, new cars and company motors put their fillers in new places, and habit goes for the cap it used on the old one.
A spouted bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, after started, carries on. Forsbrook or the middle of Blythe Marsh: it is the same few seconds in both.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A few seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you pour anything, on a drive in Boundary or a forecourt around Blythe Marsh.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally isn't. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- 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 cars say there which fuel goes where.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler is if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Blythe Bridge? Ask the person who drove the vehicle last before you set off, rather than once the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
On the day the warning appears — wherever it is around Staffordshire — a simple routine to follow.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Birch Grove.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" out loud while unscrewing it. It seems daft. It works.
- The two under one flap? So make sure the lid on the diesel filler is still shut before lifting the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, then look once more — confirm your diesel cap remained closed the whole time. Only then, start the vehicle.
Find during the second or third step that AdBlue went into the diesel tank? That is where you stop. Never go on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Blythe Marsh already?
Short order, then. First: the engine remains unstarted. Leave the ignition off too, since on plenty of diesels it by itself starts the 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.
Ask the attendants to help push the car away from the petrol pump if you are on a forecourt — the JRM, the another forecourt nearby or anywhere else. If you are on your own driveway in Blythe Marsh, leave the car where it is.
Already run? Pull over when it is safe, then turn off. On the M6, under 10 miles from Blythe Marsh, that means the next junction. A short hop across Blythe Marsh is a smaller job than a run towards Stoke-on-Trent, under 10 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
What takes place when our engineers arrive in Blythe Marsh
The van comes to the vehicle anywhere it stopped — your own drive, beside Saint Peter, or outside Forsbrook CofE Controlled Primary School. What liquid got in, the quantity, and whether it ran: our technicians ask since the answers set the work and price. Nobody heads out before you've had our quote by phone.
Draining your tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of your system. 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 the flush matters more here than with petrol. The filter flushed or, if needed, replaced; clean diesel in; and then a check of your vehicle. Before we leave, our technicians fire it up and make sure that it is running smoothly.
Unstarted vehicles mostly mean a half-hour visit after arrival. The equipment is safe on a live filling station, and hushed enough for a residential street late at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It's worth looking at your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Blythe Marsh itself
Blythe Marsh is a locality in Staffordshire, situated inland at an elevation of 177 metres, approximately 6 miles north of Stoke-on-Trent. Blythe Marsh lies near the settlements of Forsbrook, Blythe Bridge, and Stonehouses, and is characterized by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock. Blythe Marsh is a relatively small community, with a population of around 1627 residents, and is located about 130 miles northwest of London.
AdBlue drains about Blythe Marsh, and Staffordshire beyond
Over ST postcodes, our vans covering Blythe Marsh — a small village — work the surrounding places too, Stonehouses and Blythe Bridge among them. A postcode starting ST11 9 gets our van to you fastest.
There's no need to move the car. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Forsbrook Play Area, a side street close to Blythe Bridge & Forsbrook Village Hall: we drain the car where it is. Guessing won't help at the back of Foxfield Steam Railway, close to a border, or anywhere awkward to describe; phone and ask.
The short version for Blythe Marsh people
Before you tip, read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Keep the vehicle switched off then ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, throughout Staffordshire.