How It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Condover
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case put this page down for now, leave the ignition and engine off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Normally, if the motor hasn't run, it is emptied and fully rinsed where your vehicle sits around Condover. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it does not.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Plenty of current diesels on the roads around Condover and Great Ryton carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, side by side: that is the layout on many cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. The diesel side is topped up at the petrol pump all the time. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less frequently. The mistake grows in the gap between them.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen around Condover?
Carelessness seldom causes it. Instead is three things coming up at once.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the car drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Church Street before work, or in the car park outside the pub in the village on the way home.
Unfamiliar cars are second, as well. Rentals, new vehicles and company vehicles put their fillers in new places, and the hand goes for the cap it used on the old one.
Lastly, the bottle goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in just as easily, and after the tip starts, no part halts it. It takes a few seconds, be it in Little Lyth or right in the heart of Condover.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a drive in Wheathall or a forecourt in Condover.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually is not. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- Plenty of motors fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Open the flap and look for a label — many cars mark which belongs in which filler right there.
- The handbook shows which it lives when your filler is not next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- The previous driver knows. Check when you collect a rental or company car — at Shrewsbury's car park, perhaps — not when the warning appears.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
When the light comes on, anywhere across Shropshire, follow this routine.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Harley Road.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, yes, yet it works.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where both sit under a flap, make sure it is closed before the bottle comes up.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Skip stage five altogether.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Condover?
Do not start the engine: that is how the short order of things starts. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch it on. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is sucked from.
At a forecourt — Esso, Sainsbury's or any other — the staff will usually help roll the vehicle clear, if you ask. On your own drive around Condover? So your car remains where it is.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Condover lies under 10 miles from the M54; there, take the next exit. Distance matters — a quick hop across Condover is a smaller job than driving under 50 miles to Wolverhampton — so say roughly how far it went.
What takes place when our technicians get there around Condover
Outside Condover CofE Primary School, close to Condover Village Hall or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our technicians come to it. Both the work and our price rest on three replies — what fluid, which quantity, and if it's run — so our technicians ask. No one heads out until you've heard our price by phone.
Emptying the tank comes next, then a thorough flush of your system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that counts more here than with petrol. Once the filter has been cleaned — or replaced, where needed — fresh diesel is added, and finally the vehicle is tested. Next our technicians start it and make sure it runs properly before leaving.
Using pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your motor hasn't run need about half an hour after we arrive. Nothing in advance; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. It's worth looking at your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Condover, briefly
Condover is a village in Shropshire, situated near the River Severn, with an elevation of around 88 metres. Condover has a mix of old and new housing, but predominantly features detached homes. Condover is located near several smaller settlements, including Little Lyth, Boreton, and Chatford, and is within commuting distance of Wolverhampton. Condover remains a relatively small community, with a population of approximately 794 residents.
Condover and Shropshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout SY postcodes, our teams covering Condover — a village — work the surrounding spots too, Chatford and Boreton included. A postcode starting SY5 7 gets our van to you fastest.
There's no need to move the car. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Condover Woodland Park, a side street close to Saint Andrew & Saint Mary: we drain the vehicle where it sits. Tricky to pin down, like the back of St Thomas, Ryton Mission Church? Close to a county line? Checking beats assuming, so phone.
For Condover drivers, the short version
First, the cap; then, the tip. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway, leave it off and phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere around Shropshire.