Cannon Hill: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Pause reading for a moment when your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then call 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Cannon Hill. Nothing happened yet? Below, the page explains the why it happens and the how to avoid it for good.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Diesel feeds the motor — yet plenty of modern diesels seen around Cannon Hill and Selly Park hold a second fluid as well. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, and there spraying cleans the fumes.
Each tank has its own filler. Plenty of vehicles share a single flap for the two, whereas others put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, your diesel side gets filled constantly. The AdBlue side is filled far less commonly, usually from a bottle, and normally by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. It is in that gap that the mistake lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Cannon Hill: how it happens
Carelessness seldom explains it. Instead is three things coming up together.
On a drive off Russell Road before work, or in the car park at The Village on the way home: that's where the hurried top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low the car tells you, and once it's gone, limp mode follows.
The old car's cap is where your hand goes — but a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That's a second factor: a new car.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the tip after it has started. Moor Green or the middle of Cannon Hill: it is the same few seconds in both.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Kings Heath or a forecourt in Cannon Hill, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Read the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally aren't.
- Plenty of cars fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows where it lives if the filler is not next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Moseley Village? Check with the person who drove the car last before leaving, not when the light goes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around West Midlands that is.
- Turn off after you park — level ground, motor off, and not rushed by Moorcroft Road on the verge.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, perhaps, but it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the vehicle on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the car, shut the cap and look a second time that the diesel cap was never came off.
Spot at stage two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? Then stop right there. Don't go on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Cannon Hill already?
Do not start the motor: that is where the short order of things starts. Do not switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Diluting it with extra diesel fails, since AdBlue sinks to the base rather than mixing — and that's where your fuel is drawn from.
The attendants at Esso, Texaco or another forecourt will normally help pushing your car away when you ask. At home in Cannon Hill? Then the car stays put.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. On the Aston Expressway, under 3 miles from Cannon Hill, that means the next exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Birmingham, under 3 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Cannon Hill.
When our engineers arrive in Cannon Hill, what takes place?
Our van comes to the car wherever it has come to rest — your own driveway, beside Memorial to the Victims of the 2015 Sousse and Bardo Terrorist Attacks, or by SS John and Monica Catholic Primary School. Those answers determine the work and the price, and so our technicians ask what went in, about how much, and if it's run. That price is given over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
The fuel system is then rinsed thoroughly, once that tank is cleared. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own. Testing is at the end: before that, clean diesel is added, and the fuel filter is cleaned or replaced as needed. Before leaving, we start the engine and make sure that it's running properly.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour once our engineers get there, as long as your engine hasn't run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a live forecourt yet quiet at night outside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Cannon Hill, for a moment
Cannon Hill is a suburban area in the West Midlands, situated near the River Rea and close to the city centre of Birmingham. Cannon Hill is characterised by its predominantly flat housing stock, with many residents enjoying views of the surrounding area. Cannon Hill sits at an elevation of around 140 metres, and its proximity to Birmingham makes it a popular choice for those working in the city. Cannon Hill is also near several other suburbs, including Moor Green, Balsall Heath, and Moseley.
AdBlue drains in Cannon Hill and across West Midlands
Cannon Hill is a residential suburb, and our vans that cover it also work the places around it, Balsall Heath and Moseley among them, across the B postcode area. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting B13 8.
There's no need to shift the car. Anywhere it sits — beside Cannon Hill Park Station, on a lay-by heading to Cannon Hill Park, at home — that's where it is drained. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Fun Park.
Cannon Hill drivers: the short version
Always, the cap; then, the tip. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere across West Midlands, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — and so leave the car off and phone 0333 366 0103.