How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Bonehill
Leave the motor and ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. A drain and a thorough flush, done just where your car stands in Bonehill, is normally all it needs if caught before the motor runs. The remainder of this page covers why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't — useful if you're reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of modern diesels around The Bodnetts, as well as Bonehill, carry on two liquids; your engine gets just the diesel. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust stream and cleans it.
Each tank has its own filler. Some vehicles keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty more place the two side by side behind one flap. At the pump, the diesel side gets filled all the time. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less frequently, normally from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. It is in the gap that the error lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Bonehill: how it takes place
Carelessness rarely causes it. Instead is three things coming up together.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Park Lane before work, or in the car park outside The Longwood on the way home.
New-to-you vehicles are next, as well. Rentals, new cars and company vehicles put their fillers differently, and habit reaches for the cap it used on the old one.
Third, the bottle fits: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in as easily, and once the pour begins, no part stops it. Mile Oak or the heart of Bonehill: it takes the same few seconds in both.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Whether a Bonehill forecourt or a driveway over in Kettlebrook, spend a couple of seconds on these before any is poured in.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually do not.
- The size. On plenty of motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Look for it.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler is if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Check as you pick up a rental or company car — at Wilnecote's car park, perhaps — rather than when the light appears.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Staffordshire that is.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Greenwood Place.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you have found the filler and read it.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Stop once your tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; before that, pour slowly through its built-in spout.
- Close the cap, and look again — making sure your diesel cap stayed closed the whole time. Only then, start the car.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Step five stays off limits.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Bonehill already?
Brief list, then. Top of that: the engine remains off. Don't switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is pulled from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
The attendants at Asda, Sainsbury's or another forecourt will usually lend a hand to push the car away when you ask. If you are on your own drive in Bonehill, leave the car where it sits.
Already run? Pull over once it is safe, then switch off. Come off the M42 — under 5 miles out of Bonehill — at the first junction. A short hop across Bonehill is a smaller job than a run towards Lichfield, under 10 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
When we get there in Bonehill, what happens?
The van reaches the vehicle anywhere it has come to rest — your own drive, beside St. Barnabas Church, or by Longwood Primary School. Which liquid was put in, the quantity, and whether it ran: we ask because those replies decide both work and quote. No one sets off before you have had our price over the phone.
Then that tank is emptied and the 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. Filter cleaned or, if needed, replaced; clean diesel in; and then a check of the car. Next our technicians start the engine and check it runs correctly before we go.
If your engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Nothing upfront; you settle up on the day. At the end, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Misfuelling cover is included in many insurance policies — so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Bonehill and where it is
Bonehill is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Staffordshire, with a mix of semi-detached housing and a population of around 2177 residents. Bonehill lies approximately 6.4 miles from the city of Lichfield and 102.3 miles northwest of London, at an elevation of 76 metres. Bonehill is close to nearby places such as Mile Oak, Fazeley, and Bitterscote, and forms part of the wider West Midlands region. Bonehill's riverside setting provides a distinctive character to the area.
AdBlue drains across Staffordshire, Bonehill included
Throughout B postcodes, our vans covering Bonehill — a residential suburb — work the nearby spots too, Bitterscote and Fazeley among them. Fastest of all: give a B78 3 postcode for our van.
Shifting the car isn't necessary. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street close to Troublesome Trucks Runaway Coaster, a lay-by on the way to Mile Oak Recreation Ground, a drive. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Cranky's Drop Tower.
For Bonehill motorists, the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Keep the car off then ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, across Staffordshire.