AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Darlaston Green: How It Happens and How to Stop It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and your ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. In Darlaston Green, catching it before your motor runs normally means draining and a thorough flush where it stands. The rest of this page explains why it happens and how to make sure it does not — handy if you're reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
No single fluid but two: that's how many modern diesels around Darlaston Green and Fallings Heath carry, with diesel feeding your motor. 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 one filler of its own. Some vehicles keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot more place both side by side under one flap. Diesel goes in on every forecourt visit, week in, week out. The AdBlue side is filled far less frequently, normally from a bottle, and usually by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake grows in the gap between the two.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place around Darlaston Green
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Haste comes from the warning. The car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a driveway off Florian Grove, or on the way home in the car park at The Cottage Spring.
Then your car is new. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, after begun, keeps on. Darlaston or the middle of Darlaston Green: it is the same few seconds in both.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Catherine Cross or a forecourt around Darlaston Green.
- Check the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue caps are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually are not.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on many cars, the AdBlue one.
- Open the filler flap and look for a label — many cars show which goes in which inlet right there.
- Cannot see it beside the diesel filler? In that case check below the bonnet or in your boot — the owner's manual says where.
- 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 Darlaston.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
Anywhere around West Midlands the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Not in a rush on the side of The Drive, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park then switch off first.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the vehicle on.
- Finish when the tank fills or the bottle is empty; before that, pour slowly through the built-in spout.
- Before starting your car, close the cap and look again that the diesel cap was never opened off.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Never carry on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Darlaston Green?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with not starting the engine. Don't switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Thinning it with more diesel won't work, since AdBlue settles to the base rather than mixing — and that is where your fuel is sucked from.
The staff at Texaco, another forecourt nearby or another forecourt will normally lend a hand pushing the vehicle clear when you ask. On your own drive around Darlaston Green? So your car remains put.
Already run? Stop when it is safe, then switch off. On the M6, under a mile from Darlaston Green, that means the next exit. Distance matters — a short hop across Darlaston Green is a smaller job than heading under 5 miles towards Wolverhampton — so say about how far it went.
When we turn up around Darlaston Green, what happens?
Our van comes to your car anywhere it stopped — your own drive, beside Masjid-E-Umar, or outside St Joseph's Catholic Primary School, Darlaston. Our technicians ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it has run, since those answers determine the work and our price. That quote is given over the phone, before any van leaves.
Your system is then flushed thoroughly, once the tank is cleared. More than with petrol, it counts here: crystals build up, certain metals corrode, and none of it clears out unaided, however long it sits. After the fuel filter has been flushed — or replaced, if needed — fresh diesel is added, and finally your vehicle is tested. After that our technicians fire it up and make sure it runs properly before we go.
Using pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the engine hasn't run take about half an hour once our technicians arrive. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It's worth checking your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Darlaston Green
Darlaston Green is a suburban area situated on the riverside in the West Midlands, with a mix of terraced housing and local amenities. Darlaston Green lies close to the city of Wolverhampton, approximately 4 miles to the south, and is near neighbouring areas such as Darlaston and The Leys. Darlaston Green has a population of around 7408 people and is located at an elevation of 133 metres. Darlaston Green is part of the larger West Midlands conurbation, about 109 miles northwest of London.
Darlaston Green and West Midlands: AdBlue drains across the area
The Leys and The Flatts are among the towns near Darlaston Green, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, throughout WS postcodes. A postcode starting WS10 8 gets the van to you fastest.
Moving the vehicle is not needed. Draining takes place on the spot, be it a driveway, a road by War Memorial, or a lay-by towards Owen Park. Tricky to explain, like the back of St Lawrence? By a border? Checking beats guessing, and so ring.
Darlaston Green people: the short version
First, the cap; then, the tip. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Keep the car switched off then ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, across West Midlands.