AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Coleham: Why It Occurs and How to Stop It
Pause reading a minute when the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. Around Coleham, catching it before your motor turns usually leaves a drain and a thorough flush where it stands. The remainder of this page covers why it occurs and how to ensure it does not — useful if you are reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Diesel goes to your motor — yet plenty of modern diesels driven around Coleham and Cherry Orchard hold a second liquid as well. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There's a filler for every tank. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the layout on many cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. Topping up your diesel side at the pump happens constantly. The AdBlue side is topped up far less commonly, usually from a bottle, and usually by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. The slip lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen in Coleham?
It is rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out completely, the vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Greyfriars Road before work, or in the car park at The Coleham Tap on the way home.
The old car's cap is where your hand goes — but a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That's a second factor: a new car.
Third, the spout fits: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in as readily, and once the tip begins, no part stops it. It takes seconds, whether in Belle Vue or bang in the centre of Coleham.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Frankwell or a forecourt around Coleham, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Position can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps are often blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually don't.
- The size. On plenty of motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Check inside your fuel flap: many motors carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows which it is if the filler is not next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- The previous driver will know. Check as you pick up a rental or company car — from Shrewsbury's car park, say — rather than when the light appears.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
On the day the light comes on — wherever it is across Shropshire — a routine to follow.
- Not in a rush on the side of Riverside Close, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park then switch off first.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It seems daft. It works.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where the two share a flap, make sure it's shut before the bottle comes up.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Only then, start the vehicle: close the cap, check again, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Find during the second or third stage that AdBlue went into the wrong filler? That is where you stop. Skip stage five entirely.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Coleham?
Don't start the engine: that's where the short order of things starts. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels the moment your ignition goes on — and so leave it off. Topping up with diesel will not dilute it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the base of your tank, just where the fuel is drawn from.
On a forecourt — Asda, Esso or another — the attendants will normally help push your car away, if you ask. If you are on your own drive in Coleham, leave it where it sits.
Already started? Pull over once it's sensible, then switch off. Come off the M54 — under 10 miles out of Coleham — at the first exit. About how far did it go? Hopping across Coleham is less work than a trip of under 50 miles to Wrexham, and so say.
What takes place when we turn up around Coleham
Our van reaches the car wherever it has come to rest — your own drive, beside William James Clement, or outside Coleham Primary School. Our technicians ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it's run, since the replies settle the work and our price. No one sets off before you have heard our quote over the phone.
The system is then rinsed thoroughly, after that tank is cleared. Much more than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: the crystals build up, certain metals corrode, and nothing clears out on its own, however long it is left. After the filter has been flushed — or replaced, where needed — clean diesel goes in, and then the vehicle is tested. Before we leave, our technicians fire it up and make sure that it's running correctly.
Using pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where the engine has not run need about half an hour once our technicians arrive. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. While we travel, have a look at your policy; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Coleham, for a moment
Coleham is a suburban area located on the riverside in Shropshire, with a mix of terraced housing and other residential properties. Coleham sits at an elevation of 53 metres, close to the town of Shrewsbury and near other local areas such as Belle Vue and Kingsland. Coleham is situated near the Welsh border, approximately 25.9 miles from the city of Wrexham and 138.6 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Shropshire, Coleham included
Coleham is a residential suburb, and the vans that cover it also work the places around it, Shrewsbury and Kingsland among them, across the SY postcode area. Give a postcode beginning SY3 7, and our van gets there quickest.
The car doesn't need to move. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Abbey Gardens, a side street close to Bloom: our engineers drain it where it stands. Assuming won't help at the back of Coleham Pumping Station, on a border, or somewhere hard to pin down; phone and check.
Coleham people: the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Keep the vehicle switched off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, across Shropshire.