Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Castlecroft
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and the ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103. Usually, if your engine hasn't turned, it's emptied and fully flushed where your vehicle is in Castlecroft. Reading in advance? Then what follows covers how it comes about and what to stop it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Many modern diesels on the roads about Castlecroft and Merry Hill carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. The exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the fumes to fresh it, from a separate tank.
There's a filler for every tank. Plenty of motors share a single flap for both, whereas others move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, your diesel side is topped up constantly. Rarely filled, AdBlue normally goes in out of a bottle, tipped by someone who must stop and think which cap it needs. The mistake lives in that gap.
Castlecroft: how AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place
It is hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a drive off Castlecroft Avenue before work, or in the car park outside The Firs heading home: that is where the rushed top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low the vehicle warns you, and once it is gone, limp mode kicks in.
Then, your hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old vehicle — since a rental car, a new car or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
A spout-topped bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, once started, carries on. It's a few seconds, be it out in Wightwick or bang in the heart of Castlecroft.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Look at these first, at a forecourt around Castlecroft or a driveway over in Compton. Seconds, no more.
- Read the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally are not.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- Look inside the fuel flap: many motors carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler is if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Ask when you pick up a hire car or fleet car — from Wolverhampton's car park, say — not once the warning comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
Wherever in West Midlands the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Pull in on level, engine off, with time to spare — never rushing on the side of Castlecroft Road.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, yes, yet it works.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Stop when the tank fills or the bottle runs dry; before that, tip slowly through the built-in spout.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Leave out step five altogether.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Castlecroft already?
Brief list, then. Top of that: the engine remains unstarted. Don't switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is drawn from — so do not top up with diesel to thin it.
On a forecourt — Shell, Esso or any other — the attendants will usually help roll the vehicle away, when you ask. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive around Castlecroft.
Already run? Stop when it is sensible, then switch off. On the M54, under 5 miles from Castlecroft, that means the next exit. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Castlecroft is less a job than a run of under 3 miles to Wolverhampton, and so say.
When our engineers get there in Castlecroft, what occurs?
By Castlecroft Primary School, near On a windy day: dandelion or on your own drive: wherever your car has stopped, we come to it. Our technicians ask what went in, about how much, and whether it's run, since those answers decide this work and the price. On the call itself, you hear the price — before dispatch.
Then that tank is drained and the system flushed thoroughly. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and none of it clears away by itself. Hence it counts more. The filter flushed or, where it must be, swapped; fresh diesel in; and then a test of the vehicle. Before we go, our technicians fire it up and check that it's running properly.
If your engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — so use the wait to look at yours.
About Castlecroft
Castlecroft is a suburban area located on the outskirts of Wolverhampton, near the River Staffordshire, with an elevation of around 116 metres. Castlecroft sits close to nearby places such as Wightwick and Finchfield, and is home to a population of approximately 2112 people. Castlecroft is characterized by its predominant semi-detached housing stock, typical of many suburban areas in the West Midlands. Castlecroft is situated about 2.6 miles from Wolverhampton city centre, making it a convenient residential location.
AdBlue drains across West Midlands, Castlecroft included
Castlecroft is a residential suburb, and the vans that cover it also work the places around it, Wightwick Manor and Finchfield among them, across the WV postcode area. Quote a postcode beginning WV3 8, and our van gets there quickest.
Shifting the vehicle isn't necessary. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street close to Castlecroft Stadium, a lay-by on the way to Wightwick Manor Gardens, a driveway. Awkward to explain, like the back of Church of the Good Shepherd? By a border? Asking is better than assuming, and so ring.
In short, for Castlecroft people
Read the cap before you pour. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Keep it switched off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, throughout West Midlands.