Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Broadway: Why It Happens
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and your ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103. Normally, when the motor hasn't run, it's drained and fully rinsed where your car sits around Broadway. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
No single fluid but two: that's what plenty of newer diesels around Broadway and Willersey carry, with diesel feeding your motor. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There's a filler on every tank. Many of motors have a single flap for the two, while others put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is fuelled at the pump all the time. The AdBlue side is topped up far less frequently, normally from a bottle, and normally by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. The error lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank take place in Broadway?
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Kennel Lane before work, or in the car park at Horse and Hound on the way home.
Then, your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old motor — since a rental car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't.
A spouted bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, after begun, keeps on. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Broadway or out in West End.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Whether a Broadway forecourt or a driveway over in Childswickham, spend a couple of seconds on these before any goes in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually is not. Read it instead of going by position.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Lift the filler flap and look for a label — many vehicles mark what belongs in which inlet just there.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by the diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Honeybourne, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Worcestershire that is.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of High Street.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- The two under a single flap? Then confirm the cap on the diesel filler stays shut before raising the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, and look again — making sure your diesel filler remained shut the whole time. After that, start the vehicle.
Discover during the second or third stage that the bottle went into the diesel tank? That's where you stop. Do not go on to stage five.
Broadway: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
The short order of things, starting with no starting your engine. The fuel pump runs on many diesels as soon as the ignition is switched on — and so keep it off. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is pulled from.
At a forecourt — Murco, Willersey Garage or any other — the staff will usually help push the vehicle away, if you ask. If you're on your own driveway around Broadway, leave the car where it stands.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the engine has already run. The next exit means the place to come off if you're on the M5, under 15 miles from Broadway. A short hop across Broadway is a smaller job than a run towards Worcester, under 25 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
What happens when we get there in Broadway
Outside St Mary's Catholic Primary School, close to Signpost or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, we come to it. Both the work and our quote rest on three answers — which fluid, what amount, and if it has run — so our technicians ask. You get that price by phone, before anybody sets off.
Emptying the tank comes next, followed by a full flush of the fuel system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and neither washes out unaided. Hence it matters more. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Then our technicians fire it up and make sure it runs properly before we leave.
If your engine hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Your insurer will ask for the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. While we travel, take a look at your policy; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Broadway
Broadway is a village in Worcestershire, situated in the West Midlands region of England, with a population of around 967 people. Broadway sits at an elevation of 94 metres, surrounded by nearby places such as West End, Bury End, and Buckland. Broadway is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its rural setting. Broadway is located approximately 18.8 miles from Worcester and 82.6 miles from London.
AdBlue drains about Broadway, and Worcestershire beyond
Throughout WR postcodes, our vans covering Broadway — a rural village — work the nearby spots too, Buckland and Bury End among them. Quickest of all: give a WR12 7 postcode for our van.
No need to move the vehicle. Draining happens right there, be it a driveway, a street near Parish Council, or a layby on the way to The Green. Assuming won't help behind Gordon Russell Museum, on a border, or anywhere hard to pin down; phone and check.
In short, for Broadway drivers
First, the cap; after that, the pour. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it where it is, anywhere across Worcestershire: switch the vehicle off and ring 0333 366 0103.