Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Elmdon Heath: Why It Happens
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case put this page down a moment, leave your ignition and engine off, and call 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, done just where the vehicle sits in Elmdon Heath, is normally all it needs if found before your engine runs. Reading before the event? In that case what follows explains how it happens and how to prevent it happening at all.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Plenty of modern diesels around Solihull, as well as Elmdon Heath, carry on two liquids; the engine gets only the diesel. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust gas and cleans it.
There's a filler for each tank. Other vehicles keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others have the two side by side under one flap. At the pump, your diesel side gets filled constantly. Far less often, the AdBlue side gets topped up — normally from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank take place in Elmdon Heath?
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
On a driveway off Coppice Road before work, or in the car park outside Tin Feng The Golden Arches heading home: that is where the hurried top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low your car warns you, and once it is empty, limp mode kicks in.
Then, your hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old car — since a rental car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't.
A spouted bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, after begun, carries on. Lode Heath or the middle of Elmdon Heath: it is the same few seconds either way.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Elmdon or a forecourt in Elmdon Heath, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Check the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue ones are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually are not.
- On many cars, size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on many cars. Check for it.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by the diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The previous driver knows. Check when you collect a rental or company car — at Solihull's car park, perhaps — rather than once the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
When the light comes on, wherever around West Midlands, use this routine.
- Stop on level, engine off, with time in hand — never rushing on the side of Foredrove Lane.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" aloud as unscrewing it. It sounds silly. It does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, then look again — making sure your diesel cap remained shut throughout. After that, start the car.
Discover during the second or third stage that the bottle went in the wrong tank? That's where you stop. Skip step five entirely.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Elmdon Heath?
Brief order, then. First: your engine remains unstarted. Don't switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Thinning it with more diesel fails, because AdBlue settles to the bottom rather than blending — and that's where the fuel is drawn from.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it's the Esso or the EG On the Move, ask the attendants to help roll the car away from the petrol pump. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway around Elmdon Heath.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. The next exit means where to leave when you are on the M42, under 3 miles from Elmdon Heath. About how far did it go? Crossing Elmdon Heath is smaller a job than a trip of under 10 miles to Birmingham, and so say.
Our arrival around Elmdon Heath, and what takes place next
Our van reaches your car anywhere it stopped — your own driveway, near Maze, or outside Coppice Academy. Which fluid got in, the quantity, and if it ran: our technicians ask because those answers set both work and quote. On the call itself, you are told the price — before dispatch.
The fuel system is then rinsed thoroughly, after that tank is drained. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and neither clears away unaided. That is why it counts more. A test comes last: before that, fresh diesel is added, and your filter is flushed or replaced if necessary. The engine is fired up next and checked to confirm it runs smoothly, all before we go.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour once our technicians get there, as long as the engine has not run — and the pumps our engineers use are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet after dark beside a house. No money upfront; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies — so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Elmdon Heath itself
Elmdon Heath is a suburban area in the West Midlands, situated near the River Cole and close to the cities of Birmingham and Solihull. Elmdon Heath has a mix of housing types, but is predominantly characterised by detached homes, and is located near other residential areas such as Lode Heath and Olton. Elmdon Heath sits at an elevation of around 125 metres, and is about 6.8 miles southwest of Birmingham city centre. Elmdon Heath is also within commuting distance of London, being around 94.4 miles northwest of the capital.
AdBlue drains around Elmdon Heath, and West Midlands beyond
Over B postcodes, our vans covering Elmdon Heath — a residential suburb — work the nearby locations too, Catherine-de-Barnes and Olton included. Quickest of all: give a B92 9 postcode for our van.
Your car remains where it is. We drain it where it is — a side street near Land Rover Experience & Factory Tours, a lay-by on the way to Elmdon Heath Recreation Ground, a drive. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Renewal Wesley Chapel, ring and ask instead of assuming.
Elmdon Heath drivers: the short version
Pour no AdBlue until you've read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere across West Midlands, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — so leave the car off then call 0333 366 0103.