Bromley: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Pause reading a minute when the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. In Bromley, catching it before the motor runs usually means draining and a thorough flush where it stands. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it does not.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
No single liquid but two: that is what many modern diesels near Bromley and Ridge Hill carry, with diesel for your engine. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Plenty of cars have a single flap for the two, while some move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Filling your diesel side at the pump happens all the time. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less commonly. It is in the gap that the slip happens.
Bromley: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
It is 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, your vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Bromley Lane before work, or in the car park outside The Crestwood on the way home.
Unfamiliar cars are next, too. Hire cars, new vehicles and company cars put their fillers differently, and habit reaches for the cap it used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the pour after it has started. Pensnett or the heart of Bromley: it takes the same few seconds in both.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A few seconds is all these take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a drive in Holly Hall or a forecourt around Bromley.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally isn't. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- On plenty of cars, size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Check for it.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by your diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Lye? Check with the person who drove the car last before leaving, not once the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
On the day the warning comes on — anywhere you are in West Midlands — a routine to follow.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of The Nook.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, perhaps, but it works.
- Both under a single flap? So confirm the cap on your diesel side stays shut ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, then check again — confirm the diesel cap stayed shut throughout. Only then, start the car.
Find at stage two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? So stop right there. Never go on to step five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Bromley?
The short order of things, starting with no starting your motor. Leave your ignition off as well, because on plenty of diesels switching it on by itself starts your pump. Thinning it with extra diesel won't work, since AdBlue settles to the base instead of mixing — and that's where your fuel is drawn from.
Ask the staff to help roll the car away from the pump if you're at a forecourt — the the nearest petrol station, the BP or anywhere else. On your own drive in Bromley? Then the vehicle remains where it is.
Already run? Pull over once it is safe, then turn off. Leave the M5 — under 5 miles out of Bromley — at the next exit. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Bromley is smaller a job than a run of under 10 miles towards Wolverhampton, and so tell us.
Our arrival around Bromley, and what takes place next
Our technicians come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside The Bromley-Pensnett Primary School, near Brockmoor Community Centre or on your own driveway. Those answers decide the work and the quote, and so we ask what got in, roughly how much, and if it's run. On the call itself, you hear our price — ahead of anything else.
Draining that tank comes next, then a full flush of your system. More than with petrol, it matters here: the crystals form, some metals are attacked, and none of it clears out on its own, no matter how long it sits. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. We do not leave until it has been started and is running properly.
Unrun cars usually mean a half-hour job from arrival. The equipment is safe on a live forecourt, and quiet enough for a residential street late at night. No money upfront; you settle up that day. At the end, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. It is worth looking at your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Bromley, briefly
Bromley is a suburban area in the West Midlands, situated near several lakes and reservoirs at an elevation of around 117 metres. Bromley lies within commuting distance of Wolverhampton, which is approximately 6.5 miles away, and is also near the communities of Pensnett, Brockmoor, and Harts Hill. Bromley has a population of around 6360 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Bromley is located some distance from London, at around 109 miles northwest of the capital.
Bromley and West Midlands: AdBlue drains across the area
Bromley is a residential suburb, and our vans that cover it also work the towns near it, Brockmoor and Harts Hill among them, across the DY postcode area. A postcode starting DY5 4 gets our van to you fastest.
Your car doesn't need to shift. Wherever it sits — near St John's Church Brockmoor, on a lay-by heading to Pechell's Coal Pits Heath, at home — that's where it is emptied. Assuming won't help at the back of David Lloyd Clubs, close to a border, or anywhere hard to pin down; ring and ask.
For Bromley people, the short version
Read the cap before you pour. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere across West Midlands, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same — and so leave the car off and phone 0333 366 0103.