How It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Claverdon
Leave the engine and ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Around Claverdon, catching it before the motor runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush on the spot. Here before the event? Then what follows explains why it comes about and how to stop it happening at all.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Diesel goes to your motor — but many current diesels seen around Claverdon and Holywell hold a second fluid as well. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust stream to clean it.
There's a filler on every tank. Plenty of motors share a single flap for both, while others move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, your diesel side is topped up all the time. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less often. That gap is where the slip lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place in Claverdon
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
On a driveway off Station Road before work, or in the car park at Crown Inn heading home: that is where the rushed top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low the car warns you, and if it's gone, limp mode kicks in.
The old car's cap is where your hand reaches — yet a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That is a second thing: a strange motor.
A spout-topped bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, once started, keeps on. Whether it occurs in Lye Green or the middle of Claverdon, it is the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Be it a Claverdon forecourt or a drive out in Yarningale Common, spend a few seconds over these before anything goes in.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- Open the flap and check for a label — many vehicles show which belongs in each filler just there.
- Cannot find it beside the diesel inlet? In that case look beneath the bonnet or in your boot — the owner's manual says which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at the nearest station, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
On the day the warning comes on — anywhere it is in Warwickshire — a routine to follow.
- Switch off once parked — level ground, motor off, and not rushed beside The Green on the verge.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, perhaps, yet it does the trick.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the car, shut the cap and look a second time that the diesel cap never came off.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Don't go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Claverdon?
Brief list, then. Top of that: the engine stays unstarted. The fuel pump starts on many diesels as soon as your ignition goes on — so keep it off. Thinning it with more diesel won't work, because AdBlue settles to the base rather than mixing — and that's where your fuel is pulled from.
On a forecourt — Essar, Shell or any other — the staff will usually help push the vehicle away, if you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway in Claverdon.
Already started? Pull over once it's sensible, then turn off. On the M40, under 3 miles from Claverdon, that means the next exit. Distance matters — a quick hop across Claverdon makes a smaller job than heading under 15 miles towards Coventry — so say about how far it went.
Claverdon: what takes place when we turn up
Outside Claverdon Primary School, near Claverdon Hall or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, we come to it. Our engineers ask what went in, about how much, and whether it has run, since the replies decide the work and the quote. That quote comes on the call, before any van leaves.
The fuel system is then cleaned thoroughly, once that tank is cleared. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. Filter cleaned or, if needed, replaced; fresh diesel in; and then a check of the car. Before we go, our technicians fire it up and check that it's running smoothly.
If the motor hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents an insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. It's worth checking your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Claverdon itself
Claverdon is a rural village in Warwickshire, situated approximately 12 miles southeast of Coventry and 86 miles northwest of London. Claverdon sits in a gently undulating landscape at an elevation of around 129 metres, with nearby settlements including Lye Green and Tattle Bank. Claverdon has a population of around 1310 people, predominantly living in detached houses.
AdBlue drains across Warwickshire, Claverdon included
Tattle Bank and Barnmoor Green are among the towns near Claverdon, a rural village, that the same teams cover, throughout CV postcodes. Quickest of all: quote a CV35 8 postcode for our van.
Moving your car is not needed. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street near St. Michael And All Angels, Claverdon, a lay-by on the way to Ardencote Manor Hotel, Country Club & Spa, a driveway. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Claverdon Manor, ring and ask rather than assuming.
Claverdon people: the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere around Warwickshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — and so leave the car off then call 0333 366 0103.