AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Forebridge: Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and the ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. A drain and a full flush, done right where your car sits around Forebridge, is normally all it takes when caught before the engine runs. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of current diesels on the roads round Forebridge and Littleworth carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust stream and cleans it.
There's a filler on every tank. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the arrangement on many cars. On others, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. At the petrol pump, the diesel side gets filled constantly. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less frequently, usually from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. The error lives in that gap.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Forebridge: how it happens
Carelessness seldom explains it. What does is three things lining up together.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from your car, and running dry leads to limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off New Garden Street, perhaps outside The Star and Garter on the way home that evening.
Then the vehicle is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Lastly, the spout fits: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in as readily, and once the tip begins, nothing halts it. It takes seconds, be it in Stafford or bang in the centre of Forebridge.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
A couple of seconds is all these take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a drive in Queensville or a forecourt in Forebridge.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually isn't. Read it instead of going by position.
- The size. On plenty of vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Check inside the fuel flap: plenty of vehicles carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- Can't find it beside your diesel filler? Then look below the bonnet or inside your boot — the owner's manual says which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Stafford.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Staffordshire that is.
- Stop on level, engine off, with time to spare — not rushing on the side of Alexandra Road.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you have located the filler and read the cap.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check again, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Find at step two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? So stop just there. Don't go on to step five.
Forebridge: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the motor. Do not switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Diluting it with more diesel fails, because AdBlue sinks to the bottom rather than blending — and that is where your fuel is pulled from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it is the Asda or the another forecourt nearby, ask the staff to help roll the vehicle clear of the petrol pump. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive around Forebridge.
Where the engine has run already, stop safely then switch it off. Come off the M6 — under 3 miles out of Forebridge — at the next exit. About how far did it go? Hopping across Forebridge is smaller a job than a run of under 15 miles to Lichfield, and so say.
What happens when we arrive around Forebridge
By St Paul's Church of England Primary School, near St Austins or on your own drive: wherever your car has stopped, our engineers come to it. Our technicians ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether it's run, since the replies settle the work and our quote. During the phone call itself, you hear the quote — before anything else.
Then your tank is drained and the system flushed thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more here than with petrol. A test comes last: before that, clean diesel is added, and your filter is flushed or changed as needed. After that our technicians fire it up and check it runs correctly before we go.
If the motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. While we travel, have a look at your policy; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Forebridge and where it is
Forebridge is a suburban area in Staffordshire, situated on the riverside with an elevation of 82 metres. Forebridge lies near the city of Lichfield and the towns of Stafford and Broadeye, and is characterized by its predominantly terraced housing. Forebridge is part of a larger urban landscape, with nearby places including Rowley Park, and is approximately 122.7 miles from London.
AdBlue drains around Forebridge and across Staffordshire
Over ST postcodes, our teams covering Forebridge — a residential suburb — work the nearby spots too, Rowley Park and Broadeye among them. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting ST17 4.
No need to move your car. Anywhere it sits — beside St Paul's Church, on a lay-by en route to Alstom Crown Green Bowls Club, on a drive — that is where it is emptied. Assuming doesn't help at the back of Forebridge Lockup, on a border, or anywhere awkward to pin down; ring and ask.
Forebridge motorists: the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Keep the car switched off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, across Staffordshire.