AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Etruria: How It Occurs and How to Stop It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and the ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. A drain and a full flush, carried out just where your car sits around Etruria, is usually all it needs if found before the engine runs. Nothing happened yet? Below, the page covers the why it occurs and the how to prevent it altogether.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
No single liquid but two: that is what plenty of modern diesels near Etruria and Hanley run, with diesel for the motor. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust stream and cleans it.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, side by side: that's the layout on a lot of vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in your boot instead. The diesel side is fuelled at the petrol pump all the time. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less commonly. The slip lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank occur in Etruria?
Carelessness rarely causes it. Instead is three things lining up together.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from the vehicle, and running dry leads to limp mode — so a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Ladysmith Road, or outside Shoulder of Mutton Inn on the way home that evening.
Unfamiliar cars come second, too. Hire cars, new cars and company motors place their fillers in new places, and habit goes for the cap it used on the old one.
Nothing stops the pour once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Etruria or out in Cliff Vale.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A few seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you tip anything, on a drive in The Potteries or a forecourt in Etruria.
- Read the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue ones are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually aren't.
- Many vehicles fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of cars say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by your diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- 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 at Stoke-On-Trent.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
Anywhere in Staffordshire the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Jubilee Avenue, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park then switch off first.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" out loud while unscrewing it. It sounds daft. It does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where both sit under a flap, confirm it is shut before lifting the bottle.
- Finish once your tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; until then, tip gently using its built-in spout.
- Close the cap, then check again — confirm the diesel cap stayed shut throughout. After that, start your car.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Do not go on to stage five.
Etruria: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
The short order of things, beginning with no starting the motor. Do not switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Topping up with diesel won't weaken it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the base of your tank, right where the fuel is taken from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it's the Tesco or the Shell, ask the staff to help push the car away from the petrol pump. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive around Etruria.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Etruria lies under 5 miles from the M6; there, take the first exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Stoke-on-Trent, under a mile away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Etruria.
Our arrival around Etruria, and what occurs next
By Etruscan Primary School, near James Brindley Memorial or on your own driveway: wherever the car has stopped, our technicians come to it. Both the work and our price depend on three replies — which liquid, what amount, and if it's run — so our engineers ask. On the phone call itself, you are told the price — ahead of anything else.
Then the tank is drained and the system purged thoroughly. Much more than with petrol, it counts here: crystals form, certain metals corrode, and none of that clears away on its own, however long it sits. Filter cleaned or, where needed, replaced; clean diesel in; and then a test of your vehicle. The engine is fired up next and checked to confirm it runs correctly, all before our technicians go.
Unrun cars usually mean a half-hour visit from the moment we arrive. The kit is fine on a live filling station, and quiet enough for a residential street after dark. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork your insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Etruria itself
Etruria is a suburban area located on the outskirts of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, situated near the River Trent at an elevation of around 129 metres. Etruria sits close to the city centre, approximately 0.7 miles from Stoke-on-Trent, and is surrounded by other nearby places such as Cliff Vale and Shelton. Etruria has a population of around 4873 people and is characterised by predominantly terraced housing. Etruria is also relatively distant from London, at around 136.2 miles away.
AdBlue drains round Etruria, and Staffordshire beyond
Etruria is a residential suburb, and our teams that cover it also work the places around it, Stoke-on-Trent and Shelton among them, across the ST postcode area. Give a postcode beginning ST1 4, and our van gets there quickest.
Shifting the car isn't necessary. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street close to Etruria Industrial Museum, a lay-by on the way to Etruria Park, a driveway. Tricky to pin down, like the back of Josiah Wedgwood's First Bottle Kiln? Close to a county line? Checking is better than guessing, and so ring.
In short, for Etruria drivers
First, the cap; then, the pour. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere across Staffordshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — so leave the car off then ring 0333 366 0103.