How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Coton Green
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and your ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. Around Coton Green, finding it before the motor runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush where it stands. Reading in advance? Then what follows covers how it comes about and how to stop it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Many current diesels on the roads about Coton Green and The Leys carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, and there a spray cleans the gas.
Each tank has its own filler. Plenty of motors have a single flap for both, while some move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Topping up the diesel side at the petrol pump goes on constantly. Seldom topped up, AdBlue normally goes in from a bottle, tipped by someone who has to stop and think which cap to use. It is in that gap that the error lives.
Coton Green: how AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs
It is hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from the vehicle, and running out leads to limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Coton Lane, perhaps at The Coton Arms on the way home that evening.
Then the car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the pour after it has started. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Coton Green or out in Leyfields.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Gillway or a forecourt in Coton Green.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Go by the cap, not its position.
- The size. On plenty of cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Check for it.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by the diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Tamworth? Ask whoever drove the car last before leaving, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
Wherever around Staffordshire the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Cromwell Road, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park and switch off first.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap works — once you have found the filler and read the cap.
- Both behind a single flap? So confirm the cap on your diesel filler is still closed before raising the bottle.
- Finish once the tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; until then, pour gently using the built-in spout.
- Shut the cap, then look again — making sure your diesel cap remained closed throughout. After that, start the car.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Don't carry on to step five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Coton Green?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with no starting the engine. The fuel pump starts on many diesels the moment your ignition goes on — so leave it off. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is pulled from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
Ask the attendants to help push the vehicle away from the petrol pump if you are on a forecourt — the BP, the Sainsbury's or anywhere else. Your own driveway in Coton Green is the place it should stay.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. The next exit means where to leave when you're on the M6 Toll, under 5 miles from Coton Green. A short hop across Coton Green is a smaller job than a run towards Lichfield, under 10 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
When our technicians get there in Coton Green, what happens?
Wherever the car came to rest, be it outside Coton Green Primary School, near The Fitness Hub or on your own drive, our van travels to it. Those replies settle this work and the quote, so our engineers ask what got in, about how much, and if it has run. You hear that price by phone, before anyone heads out.
Emptying that tank comes next, then a thorough flush of the fuel system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more here than with petrol. Once the fuel filter has been cleaned — or renewed, if needed — clean diesel is added, and finally your car gets tested. Before leaving, our technicians start the car and make sure that it is running smoothly.
If the engine hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents your insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Misfuelling cover is included in many insurance policies — and so use the wait to look at yours.
About Coton Green and where it is
Coton Green is a suburban area in Staffordshire, situated approximately 5 miles from the city of Lichfield. Coton Green sits in a relatively low-lying area at an elevation of around 68 metres, with nearby places including Leyfields and Coton Farm. Coton Green has a population of around 3277 people, predominantly living in detached housing. Coton Green is located inland, about 103 miles northwest of London.
Coton Green and Staffordshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Coton Farm and Coton are among the places near Coton Green, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, over B postcodes. Give a postcode that starts B79 8, and the van gets there fastest.
The car stays put. Anywhere it stands — near St Francis C of E Leyfields and Coton Green, on a layby heading to Wigginton Park, at home — that is where it gets cleared. Guessing won't help behind The Coton Centre, on a boundary, or anywhere hard to pin down; ring and ask.
For Coton Green people, the short version
Tip nothing until you have read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere around Staffordshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — so leave it off and ring 0333 366 0103.