Why It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Dam Mill
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case set this page down a moment, leave the ignition and motor off, then ring 0333 366 0103. In Dam Mill, finding it before your motor runs usually leaves draining and a thorough flush on the spot. 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.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
No single liquid but two: that is what many modern diesels around Dam Mill and Blakeley Green carry, with diesel for your engine. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Other cars keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot more have the two side by side behind one flap. At the petrol pump, your diesel side is topped up all the time. Far less regularly, the AdBlue side gets topped up — normally from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. Mistakes happen in the gap between the two.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place around Dam Mill
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
Haste comes from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a drive off Lane Green Avenue, or on the way home in the car park outside The Woodman.
Then the 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 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 tip once it has started. Bilbrook or the middle of Dam Mill: it is the same few seconds in both.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Whether a Dam Mill forecourt or a driveway out in Claregate, spend a couple of seconds over these before anything is poured in.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Trust the cap, not its position.
- The size. On many cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Look inside your fuel flap: plenty of cars have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by your diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Check with 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 at Bilbrook.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Staffordshire that is.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Palmers Way.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, perhaps, yet it does the trick.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, and look again — confirm your diesel cap remained shut throughout. After that, start your car.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Stage five is out.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Dam Mill?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your motor. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch the vehicle on. Thinning it with extra diesel fails, since AdBlue settles to the bottom instead of mixing — and that's where the fuel is sucked from.
The staff at Esso, another forecourt nearby or any forecourt will normally lend a hand pushing the vehicle clear when you ask. On your own drive around Dam Mill? So the car stays where it is.
Already started? Stop once it's sensible, then switch off. On the M54, under 3 miles from Dam Mill, that means the next junction. Distance matters — a quick hop across Dam Mill is a smaller job than driving under 3 miles towards Wolverhampton — so say roughly how far it went.
Dam Mill: what occurs when our engineers get there
The van reaches the vehicle wherever it has come to rest — your own driveway, beside Barnhurst Pitches, or by Birches First School. Both the work and our price rest on three replies — which fluid, which amount, and if it has run — so we ask. During the phone call itself, you are told the quote — before dispatch.
Then that tank is emptied and your system flushed thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that counts more here than with petrol. Once your filter has been cleaned — or renewed, if required — clean diesel goes in, and finally the car gets tested. Your engine is started next and tested to confirm it runs properly, all before our technicians leave.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour once our engineers get there, as long as the engine hasn't run — and the pumps our engineers use are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet at night beside a house. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents your insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Dam Mill, briefly
Dam Mill is a locality in Staffordshire, situated on the riverside near Wolverhampton, with a mix of semi-detached housing and local amenities. Dam Mill sits at an elevation of around 108 metres, close to nearby places such as Bilbrook and Lane Green. Dam Mill is located approximately 2.9 miles from Wolverhampton, making it a commuter-friendly area. Dam Mill has a population of around 844 residents, living in a predominantly suburban environment.
Dam Mill and Staffordshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout WV postcodes, the vans covering Dam Mill — a neighbourhood — work the surrounding spots too, Palmers Cross and Lane Green included. Quickest of all: quote a WV8 2 postcode to our van.
Moving the car is not needed. Draining takes place right there, whether a driveway, a road by Church of the Holy Cross, or a lay-by towards Black Country Millennium Forest. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you're near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Christ the King.
Dam Mill motorists: the short version
First, the cap; then, the pour. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless, leave the car off then call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it sits, anywhere across Staffordshire.