AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Bordesley: How It Occurs and How to Prevent It
Leave your motor and ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. A drain plus a thorough flush, done just where the car sits in Bordesley, is usually all it takes when caught before your engine runs. Reading before the event? Then what follows covers how it comes about and what to stop it happening at all.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Not one liquid but two: that is how many newer diesels around Bordesley and Sparkbrook run, with diesel for the motor. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it.
Different tanks, separate fillers. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the arrangement on a lot of cars. On others, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. The diesel side is fuelled at the pump all the time. Far less often, the AdBlue side is filled — normally from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. It is in the gap that the slip lives.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs in Bordesley
Carelessness rarely causes it. Instead is three things lining up together.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the car drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Adderley Street before work, or in the car park outside Dead Wax Digbeth on the way home.
New-to-you cars come second, as well. Rentals, new cars and company cars place their fillers in new places, and the hand goes for the cap used on the old one.
A spouted bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, once started, carries on. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Bordesley or out in Spring Vale.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a drive in Highgate or a forecourt in Bordesley.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually isn't. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Open the filler flap and check for a label — plenty of vehicles mark which belongs in which inlet right there.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler is if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says 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 outside the nearest station.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
On the day the warning comes on — wherever you are around West Midlands — a routine to follow.
- Pull in on level, engine off, with time to spare — never rushing on the side of Glover Street.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew it. It sounds silly. It works.
- Both under one flap? So confirm the cap on your diesel side is still shut before raising the bottle.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Only then, start your car: close the cap, check again, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Leave out step five altogether.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Bordesley already?
Short order, then. Top of it: your motor stays off. Keep the ignition off too, because on many diesels it alone starts the pump. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is drawn from.
On a forecourt — Texaco, BP or any other — the attendants will usually help roll the vehicle away, if you ask. If you're on your own drive in Bordesley, leave the car where it is.
Already run? Pull over once it is safe, then turn off. On the Aston Expressway, under 3 miles from Bordesley, that means the next exit. A short hop across Bordesley is a smaller job than a run towards Birmingham, under 3 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
Our arrival around Bordesley, and what takes place next
By Bordesley Village Primary School, close to Pat Benson Boxing or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, our engineers come to it. Those replies decide this work and our quote, and so our engineers ask what got in, about how much, and whether it has run. Nobody heads out until you've had our price by phone.
After that: a drain, then a thorough flush of the entire 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 doesn't wash out on its own. Once the fuel filter has been cleaned — or replaced, where needed — fresh diesel goes in, and then your car is tested. Your engine is started next and checked to be sure it runs smoothly, all before our technicians leave.
Using pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the motor has not run need 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. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Bordesley and where it is
Bordesley is a suburban area in the West Midlands, situated on the riverside near Birmingham. Bordesley sits at an elevation of around 108 metres, close to nearby places such as Spring Vale, Deritend, and Digbeth. Bordesley is predominantly composed of flat housing, reflecting its urban character. Bordesley is located approximately 1.2 miles from Birmingham city centre, making it a convenient residential area.
AdBlue drains around Bordesley, and West Midlands beyond
Over B postcodes, our teams covering Bordesley — a residential suburb — work the surrounding spots too, Digbeth and Deritend included. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting B9 4.
Your car does not need to move. Wherever it sits — near Small Heath Boxing Club, on a layby en route to Kingston Hill Park, at home — that's where it is emptied. Tricky to pin down, like the back of Middle Ring Road 15th June 1990? By a border? Checking beats guessing, so phone.
In short, for Bordesley motorists
Before you tip, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it waits, anywhere around West Midlands.