How It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Cobridge
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and your ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, carried out right where your car sits in Cobridge, is usually all it takes if caught before your motor runs. Not happened yet? Below, the page covers the reasons it occurs and the ways to avoid it for good.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Plenty of modern diesels in Etruria, as well as Cobridge, carry on two fluids; the motor takes just your diesel. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, where spraying cleans the gas.
Each tank has its own filler. Other motors keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot more have the two side by side under one flap. Diesel gets filled at every forecourt call-out, again and again. Seldom topped up, AdBlue normally comes from a bottle, poured by a driver who has to stop and think which cap it needs. Mistakes happen in the gap between them.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place in Cobridge
Carelessness seldom causes it. What does is three things coming up at once.
On a drive off Sneyd Street before work, or in the car park outside The New Queen on the way home: that is where the hurried top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and once it is empty, limp mode follows.
Then, the hand goes for the cap it knew on the old motor — because a hire car, a new car or a company car places the fillers where your last one did not.
Nothing stops the pour once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It takes seconds, whether in Hanley or right in the heart of Cobridge.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Look at these before pouring, on a forecourt in Cobridge or a drive over in Northwood. A few seconds, no more.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Trust the cap, not its position.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside your fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Check for it.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by the diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Longport, ask before you leave, not 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.
- Pull in somewhere level, motor off, with time to spare — not rushing on the side of Grange Street.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, yes, but it works.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where the two share a flap, confirm it is closed before the bottle comes up.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, and check once more — making sure the diesel cap remained closed throughout. After that, start your car.
Discover during the second or third stage that AdBlue went into the diesel tank? That's where you stop. Stage five stays off limits.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Cobridge already?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the motor. The fuel pump runs on many diesels as soon as the ignition is switched on — so keep it off. AdBlue does not 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.
At a forecourt — the nearest petrol station, Morrisons or any other — the staff will usually help push the vehicle away, when you ask. Your own drive in Cobridge is where it stays.
Where your engine has been run already, pull over safely and switch the vehicle off. Come off the M6 — under 5 miles out of Cobridge — at the next junction. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Cobridge is smaller a job than a trip of under 3 miles towards Stoke-on-Trent, and so tell us.
When we turn up in Cobridge, what occurs?
We come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside St Peter's Catholic Academy, near Christ Church or on your own driveway. Both the work and the price depend on three replies — what liquid, what quantity, and whether it has run — so our technicians ask. During the call itself, you hear the quote — ahead of anything else.
The fuel system is then rinsed thoroughly, once that tank is emptied. Much more than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: the crystals build up, certain metals corrode, and none of it washes out unaided, however long it sits. Filter cleaned or, where it must be, swapped; clean diesel in; then a check of your car. Before leaving, our technicians start it and make sure that it is running properly.
If the motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents an insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Cobridge, briefly
Cobridge is a suburban area in Staffordshire, situated near the city of Stoke-on-Trent, with Cobridge being one of the many communities that make up the larger Stoke-on-Trent urban area. Cobridge sits at an elevation of 162 metres, in a region of inland Staffordshire that has been shaped by its industrial heritage. Cobridge is characterized by its predominantly terraced housing stock, reflecting its historical development as a residential area for local workers. Cobridge is close to nearby places such as Hanley, Burslem, and Sneyd Green, and is about 1.1 miles from Stoke-on-Trent city centre.
AdBlue drains around Cobridge and across Staffordshire
Cobridge is a residential suburb, and the teams that cover it also work the places around it, Burslem and Sneyd Green among them, across the ST postcode area. Fastest of all: quote a ST6 2 postcode for our van.
The car does not need to shift. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street close to St Peters, a lay-by on the way to Cobridge Park, a drive. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Moorcroft Heritage Visitor Centre.
The short version for Cobridge drivers
First, the cap; after that, the tip. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave it off and phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it waits, anywhere around Staffordshire.