AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Cotes Heath: Why It Happens and How to Prevent It
Stop here a minute if the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then phone 0333 366 0103. In Cotes Heath, finding it before your motor turns usually leaves a drain and a thorough flush where it stands. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Plenty of current diesels on the roads around Cotes Heath and Walford carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust gas and cleans it.
Every tank comes with a filler of its own. Many of motors share a single flap for the two, whereas others move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Topping up your diesel side at the petrol pump happens all the time. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less commonly, normally from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. It is in that gap that the error happens.
Cotes Heath: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
It is seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a drive off Station Road before work, or in the car park at the pub in the village on the way home: that's where the hurried top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low the car tells you, and once it's empty, limp mode follows.
The old car's cap is where the hand reaches — but a rental car, a new motor or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That is a second thing: a strange vehicle.
Lastly, the spout goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in as easily, and after the tip starts, no part halts it. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Cotes Heath or out in Cranberry.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
A few seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a drive in Standon or a forecourt in Cotes Heath.
- Read the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually are not.
- Many vehicles give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Look for it.
- The handbook says where it is if your filler isn't next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The previous driver will know. Check as you collect a hire car or company car — at Barlaston's car park, say — not when the warning comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
For the day the warning comes on — anywhere you are in Staffordshire — a simple routine to follow.
- Turn off after you park — flat ground, engine off, and never in a rush beside Cranberry Marsh on the verge.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you have located your filler and read the cap.
- Leave the 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.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Never go on to step five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Cotes Heath?
Do not start the motor: that's where the short order of things begins. Keep the ignition off too, because on many diesels it alone starts your pump. Filling up with diesel won't dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the bottom of your tank, just where the fuel is drawn from.
The staff at Croxton Service Station, Baldwins Gate Filling Station or any forecourt will normally lend a hand to push the vehicle clear when you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway around Cotes Heath.
When your motor has run already, stop somewhere safe and switch the car off. Cotes Heath lies under 3 miles from the M6; on it, use the next exit. Distance matters — a quick hop across Cotes Heath makes a smaller job than driving under 10 miles to Stoke-on-Trent — so say about how far it went.
Our arrival in Cotes Heath, and what occurs next
The van reaches the car wherever it stopped — your own driveway, near Cotes & Standon Village Hall, or by All Saints CofE (C) First School. The answers determine this work and the price, and so we ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it's run. Nobody sets off before you have heard the quote over the phone.
Then the tank is drained and your system rinsed thoroughly. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and none of that washes away unaided. That is why it matters more. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Your engine is started next and tested to make sure it runs correctly, all before our technicians go.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour once we arrive, as long as your motor has not run — and the pumps our engineers use are fine on a live forecourt and quiet after dark beside a house. Nothing upfront; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. It's worth checking your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Cotes Heath itself
Cotes Heath is a village in Staffordshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 102 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Cotes Heath lies approximately 8.4 miles from Stoke-on-Trent and 132.5 miles from London, making it a relatively rural community. Cotes Heath has a population of around 803 residents and is near other small places such as Cranberry, Bowers Bent, and Bowers. Cotes Heath is part of the wider West Midlands region, but retains its own distinct character as a small village.
AdBlue drains round Cotes Heath, and Staffordshire beyond
Cotes Heath is a village, and the teams that cover it also work the places around it, Bowers Bent and Bowers among them, across the ST postcode area. Quickest of all: quote a ST21 6 postcode for our van.
The vehicle does not need to move. We drain it where it is — a side street near St James Church, a lay-by on the way to Staun Wood, a drive. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you're near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of All Saints.
Cotes Heath motorists: the short version
Read the cap before you pour. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Leave the car off then phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, across Staffordshire.