Bromley Wood: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and the ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, done right where the car sits in Bromley Wood, is usually what it needs when caught before your engine runs. Here before the event? Then what follows covers how it comes about and what to prevent it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Many newer diesels in Hoar Cross, as well as Bromley Wood, run on two liquids; the engine takes only the diesel. The exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the fumes to clean it, from a separate tank.
Each tank has its own filler. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is filled at the petrol pump all the time. Rarely topped up, AdBlue normally goes in from a bottle, tipped by someone who must stop and think which cap to use. That gap is where the error lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs around Bromley Wood
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
Haste follows from the warning. The vehicle warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a drive off Pinfold Lane, or on the way home in the car park outside the pub in the village.
The old car's filler is where your hand reaches — but a rental car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That's a second factor: an unfamiliar car.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the pour once it has started. Whether it takes place in Radmore Wood or the middle of Bromley Wood, it is the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Check these first, on a forecourt around Bromley Wood or a driveway over in Dunstal. Seconds, that's all.
- Check the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually aren't.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of motors, the AdBlue one.
- Check inside the fuel flap: plenty of vehicles carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- Can't see it next to the diesel filler? Then look below the bonnet or inside your boot — the handbook says where.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Rugeley Trent Valley? Check with the person who drove the car last before leaving, rather than when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Staffordshire that is.
- Switch off once parked — flat ground, engine stopped, and never in a rush by Abbots Bromley Road on the verge.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap works — once you've found the filler and read it.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the vehicle on.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before starting your car, close the cap and check again that your diesel cap never opened off.
Find at the second or third stage that the bottle went in the diesel tank? That is where you stop. Don't go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Bromley Wood already?
Brief list, then. Top of it: the engine remains off. Don't switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is sucked from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
Ask the attendants to help push the car clear of the petrol pump if you are on a forecourt — the Shell, the Tesco or somewhere else. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway around Bromley Wood.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Bromley Wood lies under 15 miles from the M6 Toll; there, use the first junction. Distance counts — a quick hop across Bromley Wood makes a smaller job than heading under 10 miles towards Lichfield — so tell us about how far it went.
When our engineers turn up around Bromley Wood, what occurs?
Our technicians come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside The Richard Clarke First School, close to St Nicholas or on your own drive. Both the work and the quote depend on three replies — what liquid, what amount, and if it's run — so our technicians ask. During the call itself, you are told the quote — before anything else.
Draining that tank comes next, followed by a full flush of the fuel system. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. Once the filter has been cleaned — or renewed, if needed — fresh diesel goes in, and finally the vehicle is tested. We don't leave until it has been started and is running correctly.
With pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your engine has not run need about half an hour after we arrive. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents an insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Bromley Wood, briefly
Bromley Wood is a small locality in Staffordshire, situated inland at an elevation of around 114 metres. Bromley Wood lies near the city of Lichfield, approximately 9 miles away, and is close to other nearby places such as Radmore Wood and Abbots Bromley. Bromley Wood is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock and a relatively small population of around 538 residents.
AdBlue drains across Staffordshire, Bromley Wood included
Bromley Wood is a small village, and our teams that cover it also work the towns around it, Abbots Bromley and Mill Green among them, across the WS postcode area. Fastest of all: quote a WS15 3 postcode for our van.
The car does not need to move. Wherever it stands — beside Abbots Bromley Village Hall, on a lay-by en route to Birch Wood, at home — that is where it gets cleared. Guessing won't help at the back of Church of the Sacred Heart, close to a boundary, or anywhere hard to pin down; phone and check.
Bromley Wood drivers: the short version
First, the cap; then, the tip. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave it off then call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it waits, anywhere across Staffordshire.