Why It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Curdworth
Leave your motor and ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Usually, when the motor hasn't run, it's drained and thoroughly cleaned where your vehicle sits in Curdworth. The rest of this page explains why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't — handy if you're reading ahead of time.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Plenty of newer diesels in Minworth, as well as Curdworth, run on two liquids; the engine gets just your diesel. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust stream and cleans it.
Each tank has its own filler. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in at each filling station call-out, again and again. Rarely topped up, AdBlue normally goes in out of a bottle, poured by a driver who must stop and think which filler it needs. The mistake grows in that gap between them.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place in Curdworth
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
Hurry comes from the warning. Your car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a driveway off St Nicholas Walk, or on the way home in the car park at The Beehive.
Then, your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old car — since a hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't.
A spout-topped bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, after begun, carries on. Wishaw or the heart of Curdworth: it takes the same few seconds either way.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Be it a Curdworth forecourt or a driveway over in Grove End, take a couple of seconds on these before anything goes in.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Trust the cap, not its position.
- The size. On plenty of vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on many cars. Check for it.
- Can't find it beside the diesel inlet? In that case check below the bonnet or inside your boot — the handbook will say where.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Water Orton.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
Wherever across Warwickshire the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Turn off once parked — flat ground, motor stopped, and never rushed beside Farthing Lane on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- The two behind a single flap? So confirm the lid on the diesel side stays shut before lifting the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the car, close the cap and check a second time that your diesel cap never opened off.
Discover during the second or third stage that the bottle went into the wrong filler? That's where you stop. Never go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Curdworth?
Brief list, then. Top of that: your engine stays off. The fuel pump starts on many diesels as soon as the ignition goes on — and so keep it off. Topping up with diesel won't thin it: instead, AdBlue drops to the bottom of that tank, right where fuel is drawn from.
The attendants at Asda, Shell or any forecourt will normally lend a hand to push the car clear if asked. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive around Curdworth.
Already started? Pull over once it's safe, then switch off. Curdworth sits under a mile from the M42; there, take the first junction. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Curdworth is less a job than a run of under 10 miles to Birmingham, so tell us.
What takes place when our technicians turn up around Curdworth
By Curdworth Primary School, near St Nicholas Church or on your own drive: wherever your car has stopped, our technicians come to it. What liquid got in, the quantity, and whether it ran: we ask since those answers decide the work and quote. During the call itself, you hear our price — before dispatch.
The system is then cleaned thoroughly, once your tank is emptied. 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 the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. After that we fire it up and check it runs correctly before leaving.
Unrun cars usually need a half-hour visit from the moment we arrive. The equipment is safe on a live forecourt, and quiet enough for a residential street late at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It is worth checking your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Curdworth and where it is
Curdworth is a village in Warwickshire, situated on the banks of the River Tame at an elevation of around 86 metres. Curdworth lies approximately 7.9 miles east of Birmingham and 98.5 miles northwest of London, with nearby villages including Wishaw, Water Orton, and Over Green. Curdworth has a population of around 838 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing.
AdBlue drains around Curdworth and across Warwickshire
As a village, Curdworth shares its vans nearby areas — Water Orton, Over Green — all the way across B postcodes and the wider area around them. Quickest of all: give a B76 9 postcode for the van.
Shifting the car isn't necessary. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Birch Wood, a side street near Curdworth Village Sign: our engineers drain it where it stands. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Curdworth Village Hall.
Curdworth drivers: the short version
Tip no AdBlue till you have read the cap. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it wherever it is, anywhere across Warwickshire: keep the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103.