Doseley: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Keep the motor and ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Caught before your motor runs, it is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Doseley. The remainder of this page covers why it happens and how to make sure it does not — handy if you are reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Not one liquid but two: that's how plenty of newer diesels around Doseley and Horsehay run, with diesel feeding the engine. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, and there spraying cleans the fumes.
Each tank has its own filler. On a lot of cars 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 on every filling station visit, again and again. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less commonly. The error lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank occur around Doseley?
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from the car, and letting it run out leads to limp mode — so a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Frame Lane, perhaps outside Travellers Joy on the way home after work.
Next, the hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old vehicle — since a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
A spouted bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, after started, keeps on. It takes a few seconds, whether out in Spring Village or right in the centre of Doseley.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Lightmoor or a forecourt around Doseley, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones are often blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally do not.
- The size. On plenty of cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Lift the flap and look for a label — many motors mark what belongs in each filler right there.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by your diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Telford Central? Ask the person who drove the car last before leaving, rather than once the light goes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
On the day the light appears — anywhere it is in Shropshire — a routine to use.
- Not in a rush on the side of St Luke's Road, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park then switch off first.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap works — after you've found your filler and read the cap.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start your car, close the cap and check a second time that the diesel cap never came off.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Don't go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Doseley already?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your motor. Keep your ignition off as well, since on plenty of diesels it by itself runs your pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is drawn from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
At a forecourt — Esso, Asda or any other — the attendants will usually help roll the vehicle clear, when you ask. If you're on your own driveway in Doseley, leave it where it is.
Already started? Pull over when it is safe, then switch off. Leave the M54 — under 3 miles out of Doseley — at the first exit. A short hop across Doseley is a smaller job than a run towards Wolverhampton, under 25 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
When our technicians get there in Doseley, what occurs?
Outside Captain Webb Primary School, near War Memorial or on your own driveway: wherever the vehicle has stopped, we come to it. What liquid was put in, the amount, and if it ran: our engineers ask since those replies decide the work and price. Nobody sets off before you've heard the quote over the phone.
Then the tank is cleared and the fuel system cleaned thoroughly. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. The engine is started next and checked to make sure it runs smoothly, all before our technicians go.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour after our engineers get there, provided your engine has not run — and the pumps we use are safe on a live forecourt yet quiet after dark beside a house. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents an insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. While we travel, take a look at your policy; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Doseley
Doseley is a suburban area in Shropshire, situated lakeside with a mix of semi-detached housing and local amenities. Doseley sits at an elevation of 151 metres, approximately 15 miles from Wolverhampton and within commuting distance of the West Midlands conurbation. Doseley is close to nearby places such as Spring Village, Dawley, and Little Dawley, and is about 127 miles northwest of London. Doseley has a population of around 3521 residents.
Doseley and Shropshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Being a residential suburb, Doseley shares its vans nearby places — Dawley, Little Dawley — all the way across TF postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. Quickest of all: quote a TF4 3 postcode for the van.
Shifting the vehicle is not necessary. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street close to Dawley British Legion, a lay-by on the way to Doseley Park, a drive. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Holy Trinity Church.
The short version for Doseley drivers
Pour no AdBlue until you've read the cap. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it wherever it is, anywhere across Shropshire: keep the car off then call 0333 366 0103.