Brookside: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Pause here for a moment if the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and phone 0333 366 0103. In Brookside, finding it before the motor turns usually leaves draining and a thorough flush on the spot. The rest of this page covers why it takes place and how to ensure it doesn't — handy if you're reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Not one fluid but two: that's how many modern diesels around Brookside and Town Park run, with diesel feeding the 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.
Different tanks, separate fillers. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Filling the diesel side at the pump happens constantly. The AdBlue side is topped up far less commonly, normally from a bottle, and usually by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. Mistakes happen in the gap between them.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank happens around Brookside
It's rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Haste follows from the warning. Your car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a drive off Burtondale, or on the way home in the car park outside The Mallard.
Then your car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand hits for the cap it would have 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. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Brookside or out in Stirchley.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Be it a Brookside forecourt or a driveway over in Aqueduct, spend a couple of seconds on these before anything is poured in.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally don't.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Look for it.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler sits if it is not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Whoever had it before knows. Ask when you collect a hire car or fleet car — at Telford Central's car park, perhaps — not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
On the day the light appears — anywhere you are in Shropshire — a simple routine to follow.
- Switch off after you park — flat ground, motor stopped, and never in a rush by Teal Close on the verge.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you've found your filler and read the cap.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Stop once the tank fills or the bottle is empty; until then, tip slowly through the built-in spout.
- Only then, start the vehicle: close the cap, check once more, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Do not go on to step five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Brookside?
Don't start the motor: that's how the short order of things begins. Keep the ignition off as well, since on many diesels it by itself starts the fuel pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is pulled from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
The staff at Shell, Esso or another forecourt will usually help pushing your car clear if you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway in Brookside.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Brookside sits under 3 miles from the M54; on it, take the next exit. About how far did it go? Crossing Brookside is less a job than a trip of under 15 miles to Wolverhampton, so say.
Brookside: what happens when we get there
Anywhere your car has stopped, whether by Holmer Lake Primary School, near St James Church or at home, our van travels to it. Both the work and the price depend on three replies — what liquid, what quantity, and whether it has run — so we ask. During the call itself, you are told our price — before anything else.
The system is then cleaned thoroughly, after the tank is emptied. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and none of that clears out by itself. That is why it matters more. After the filter is cleaned — or renewed, where needed — clean diesel goes in, and finally your vehicle gets tested. After that we start the car and make sure it runs properly before we go.
If your engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Your insurer usually wants the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Brookside, for a moment
Brookside is a suburban area in Shropshire, situated inland at an elevation of around 128 metres. Brookside lies approximately 13.7 miles from Wolverhampton and is part of the wider West Midlands region. Brookside is characterised by its predominantly terraced housing stock, with nearby places including Stirchley, Tweedale, and Halesfield. Brookside has a population of around 5433 residents.
AdBlue drains around Brookside and across Shropshire
Tweedale and Halesfield are among the towns around Brookside, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, throughout TF postcodes. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting TF3 1.
The car stays put. Draining takes place on the spot, be it a driveway, a street by Telford Ski Centre, or a layby towards Beaconsfield Centre. Tricky to pin down, like the back of Catholic Church of St Mary? Close to a border? Asking is better than assuming, so ring.
Brookside motorists: the short version
First, the cap; then, the pour. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere across Shropshire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless — and so leave the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103.