How It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Crackley
Stop here for a moment if your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Around Crackley, finding it before your motor runs usually leaves draining and a full flush on the spot. Reading before the event? In that case what follows covers why it happens and how to stop it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel goes to your engine — yet plenty of modern diesels driven about Crackley and Butters Green carry another liquid as well. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust gas to clean it.
There's a filler for each tank. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, the diesel side gets filled all the time. Far less regularly, the AdBlue side gets topped up — mostly from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. It is in that gap that the mistake happens.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Crackley: how it occurs
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
Hurry follows from the warning. The vehicle warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a driveway off Aston Road, or on the way home in the car park outside The Jolly Potters.
Then your car is strange. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Lastly, the bottle fits: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in just as readily, and after the tip begins, nothing stops it. It's seconds, whether out in Springwood or bang in the heart of Crackley.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Wood Lane or a forecourt around Crackley, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally is not. Read it instead of going by position.
- On many cars, size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Open the flap and check for a label — many cars mark what goes in which inlet right there.
- The handbook says where it lives if the filler isn't next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Whoever had it before knows. Ask as you collect a rental or fleet car — at Longport's car park, perhaps — not when the light appears.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
On the day the light comes on — wherever you are in Staffordshire — a simple routine to follow.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Cedar Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start your car, shut the cap and check a second time that your diesel cap never came off.
Discover during the second or third stage that the bottle went into the wrong filler? That is where you stop. Never go on to step five.
Crackley: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Short list, then. Top of it: your motor remains off. Leave your ignition off too, since on many diesels it by itself runs your fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
Ask the attendants to help push the car clear of the pump if you are at a forecourt — the Shell, the Esso or somewhere else. On your own drive in Crackley? Then the vehicle remains where it is.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Leave the M6 — under 3 miles out of Crackley — at the next junction. Mileage counts — a short hop across Crackley makes a smaller job than driving under 5 miles to Stoke-on-Trent — so tell us roughly how far it went.
Crackley: what occurs when we arrive
Outside St Chad's CofE (C) Primary School, close to Church of St.Chad, Red Street or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, we come to it. What fluid went in, the amount, and if it ran: we ask since the replies decide the work and quote. No one sets off until you have heard our price by phone.
The fuel system is then rinsed thoroughly, after that tank is emptied. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and none of it clears out by itself. Hence it matters more. Once your filter has been cleaned — or replaced, where required — clean diesel is added, and then the vehicle is tested. Your engine is started next and tested to make sure it runs smoothly, all before we leave.
Unstarted cars mostly mean a half-hour visit from arrival. The kit is fine on a live forecourt, and hushed enough for a residential street after dark. The insurer will ask for the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. It's worth looking at your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Crackley
Crackley is a suburban area situated near Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, with Crackley being one of the higher points in the area at around 182 metres. Crackley sits close to the nearby places of Springwood, Red Street, and Chesterton, and Crackley is home to a population of approximately 5140 residents. Crackley is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, and Crackley is located about 4 miles from Stoke-on-Trent city centre.
Crackley and Staffordshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Crackley is a residential suburb, and our teams that cover it also work the towns around it, Red Street and Chesterton among them, across the ST postcode area. A postcode starting ST5 7 gets our van to you fastest.
Moving your car is not needed. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Crackley Park, a side street close to Kingdom Hall of the Jehovah's Witnesses: we drain it where it sits. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Holy Trinity, ring and ask rather than guessing.
Crackley people: the short version
Read the cap before you tip. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Leave the vehicle switched off and call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, across Staffordshire.