Coppenhall: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and the ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103. Normally, when the motor hasn't run, it's drained and fully cleaned where your vehicle is in Coppenhall. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of newer diesels on the roads round Coppenhall and Sydney carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Every tank has one filler of its own. Other cars put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others place both side by side under one flap. Topping up the diesel side at the petrol pump happens all the time. Seldom filled, AdBlue normally comes from a bottle, poured by a driver who must stop and think what filler it needs. Mistakes happen in that gap between them.
Coppenhall: how AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from the car, and running dry means limp mode — so a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Merchants Court, or at The Horse Shoe on the way home that evening.
Then, the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old car — since a hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not.
Third, the bottle fits: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in just as easily, and once the pour starts, no part halts it. Whether it happens in Maw Green or the middle of Coppenhall, it's the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A couple of seconds is all these take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a drive in Lane Ends or a forecourt around Coppenhall.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- The size. On plenty of vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Look inside the fuel flap: many cars have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says where it is when your filler isn't next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Crewe.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
The day the light comes on, anywhere around Cheshire, follow this routine.
- Switch off after you park — level ground, motor off, and not rushed beside Castlemere Drive at the roadside.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, yes, yet it works.
- The two under one flap? So confirm the lid on your diesel filler is still closed ahead of raising the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, and check again — confirm your diesel filler stayed shut the whole time. Only then, start the vehicle.
Find at stage two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? Then stop right there. Never go on to stage five.
Coppenhall: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
The short order of things, starting with no starting your motor. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch the car on. Filling up with diesel will not dilute it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of your tank, right where the fuel is taken from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it's the Shell or the Asda Express, ask the staff to help roll the vehicle clear of the pump. On your own drive around Coppenhall? So the car remains where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the engine has already run. Leave the M6 — under 5 miles out of Coppenhall — at the first junction. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Coppenhall is less work than a run of under 15 miles to Stoke-on-Trent, and so tell us.
What occurs when our engineers turn up around Coppenhall
Our van comes to your car anywhere it has come to rest — your own drive, near Hopes and Beams, or outside St Michael's Community Academy. The answers determine this work and the quote, and so our technicians ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether it has run. During the call itself, you hear our price — before anything else.
After that: draining, then a full flush of the whole system. Much more than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: the crystals build up, certain metals corrode, and none of that washes out on its own, however long it is left. Testing comes last: before that, clean diesel goes in, and your filter is flushed or changed as needed. Before we go, we start the car and confirm that it is running smoothly.
If the motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. No money in advance; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. While we travel, have a look at your policy; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Coppenhall, for a moment
Coppenhall is a suburban area in Cheshire, situated inland at an elevation of 54 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Coppenhall lies approximately 12.8 miles from Stoke-on-Trent and is close to nearby places such as Maw Green and Coppenhall Moss. Coppenhall has a population of around 6422 residents and is characterized by its quiet residential streets. Coppenhall is located in the North West region of England, about 147.9 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Cheshire, Coppenhall included
Coppenhall is a residential suburb, and our vans that cover it also work the towns near it, Coppenhall Moss and Barrows Green among them, across the CW postcode area. Fastest of all: give a CW1 4 postcode to our van.
The vehicle remains put. Anywhere it stands — near Coppenhall Saint Michaels, in a layby heading to Haslemere Way Pocket Park, on a drive — that is where it gets drained. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Crewe Crematorium.
In short, for Coppenhall drivers
Tip no AdBlue till you've read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere in Cheshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless — so leave the vehicle off then call 0333 366 0103.