Ford: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and your ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. In Ford, finding it before your motor turns normally means a drain and a thorough flush on the spot. Reading in advance? In that case the rest explains how it happens and what to prevent it ever happening.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Plenty of newer diesels in Montford, like those in Ford, run on two fluids; your engine takes just your diesel. Its own tank holds it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, and there spraying cleans the fumes.
Each tank has one filler of its own. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. Filling your diesel side at the pump goes on constantly. Seldom topped up, AdBlue normally goes in out of a bottle, tipped by someone who has to stop and think what cap it needs. The slip lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank happen in Ford?
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off New Street before work, or in the car park at The Gates at Ford on the way home.
The old car's filler is where your hand reaches — yet a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That is a second factor: a new car.
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 after it has started. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Ford or out in Butlane Head.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Preston Montford or a forecourt in Ford, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- The size. On plenty of motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Check inside your fuel flap: plenty of cars carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- Can't see it beside the diesel filler? Then check beneath the bonnet or in your boot — the owner's manual will say which.
- The previous driver will know. Ask as you collect a rental or company car — at Shrewsbury's car park, say — rather than once the warning comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
For the day the light appears — anywhere it is across Shropshire — a simple routine to follow.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Butt Lane.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, perhaps, yet it works.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where the two sit under a flap, make sure it's shut before the bottle comes up.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the car, close the cap and look a second time that the diesel cap never came off.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Don't go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Ford?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your engine. The fuel pump runs on many diesels as soon as your ignition goes on — and so keep it off. Diluting it with more diesel won't work, since AdBlue settles to the base rather than blending — and that's where your fuel is pulled from.
The staff at Shell, Four Crosses Filling Station or another forecourt will normally lend a hand to push the vehicle away if asked. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive in Ford.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the engine has already run. Ford sits under 15 miles from the M54; on it, take the first junction. A short hop across Ford is a smaller job than a run towards Wrexham, under 25 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
When we get there around Ford, what takes place?
By Trinity CofE Primary School, near Ford Village Hall or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, our engineers come to it. Our technicians ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it has run, since those replies determine the work and our price. You get that price by phone, before anyone sets off.
Emptying the tank comes next, then a full flush of the fuel system. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and none of it clears out by itself. Hence it counts more. Testing is at the end: before that, fresh diesel is added, and the fuel filter is flushed or changed as needed. Your engine is fired up next and tested to confirm it runs smoothly, all before our technicians go.
If your motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork your insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. While we travel, have a look at your insurance documents; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Ford
Ford is a village in Shropshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 73 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Ford lies near several smaller settlements, including Butlane Head, Chavel, and Shoot Hill, and is approximately 23 miles from Wrexham. Ford is a relatively small community, with a population of around 693 people, and is located in the West Midlands region of England. Ford is also some distance from major urban centres, being around 143 miles from London.
Ford and Shropshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Ford is a village, and the teams that cover it also work the towns around it, Chavel and Shoot Hill among them, across the SY postcode area. Quote a postcode beginning SY5 9, and the van arrives fastest.
There's no need to shift the car. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Den Plantation, a side street close to St Michael: we drain the car where it is. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of St. Chad, Montford.
Ford drivers: the short version
Always, the cap; after that, the pour. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it where it is, anywhere in Shropshire: switch the car off then ring 0333 366 0103.