Frankley: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Keep the motor and ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Around Frankley, catching it before the engine runs usually leaves draining and a thorough flush on the spot. Reading in advance? In that case what follows explains how it comes about and how to prevent it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of modern diesels on the roads about Frankley and Eachway carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust stream to clean it.
Different tanks, different fillers. Many of cars have a single flap for both, whereas some put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, the diesel side gets filled all the time. Seldom topped up, AdBlue normally goes in out of a bottle, tipped by a driver who has to stop and think which cap to use. It is in the gap that the slip lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen in Frankley?
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out altogether, your vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Fabian Close before work, or in the car park at The Lickey Banker on the way home.
Unfamiliar motors are next, as well. Hire cars, new motors and company cars put their fillers in new places, and the hand goes for the cap used on the old one.
A spouted bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, after begun, keeps on. It takes a few seconds, be it in Frankley Hill or right in the heart of Frankley.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A couple of seconds is all these take — so check them before you pour anything, on a drive in Dayhouse Bank or a forecourt around Frankley.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually is not. Read it rather than going by position.
- Many motors give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on many motors. Look for it.
- Can't see it beside your diesel filler? Then look beneath the bonnet or in your boot — the handbook says where.
- Whoever had it before knows. Check when you pick up a rental or fleet car — from Longbridge's car park, say — not once the light appears.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
On the day the warning appears — wherever it is around West Midlands — a simple routine to use.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of New Street.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you have found your filler and read it.
- The two behind one flap? So make sure the cap on your diesel filler stays closed ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Find at step two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? Then stop just there. Never carry on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Frankley?
Do not start your motor: that is how the short order of things starts. Leave the ignition off as well, because on plenty of diesels switching it on alone starts your fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is sucked from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it's the Murco or the Morrisons, ask the staff to help push the car away from the pump. If you are on your own driveway around Frankley, leave the vehicle where it sits.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your engine has already run. Come off the M5 — under a mile out of Frankley — at the first junction. A short hop across Frankley is a smaller job than a run towards Birmingham, under 10 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
Frankley: what takes place when we get there
Our technicians come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Holly Hill Methodist CofE Infant School, near Frankley Community Library or on your own driveway. What liquid was put in, the amount, and if it ran: our technicians ask because the answers decide both work and price. On the phone call itself, you hear our quote — before dispatch.
Then your tank is emptied and the system purged thoroughly. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own. Testing comes last: before that, clean diesel is added, and the filter is cleaned or replaced if necessary. The motor is fired up next and tested to be sure it runs properly, all before our engineers go.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour once our engineers get there, provided the motor has not run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a live forecourt yet quiet at night beside a house. Nothing in advance; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. It's worth checking your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Frankley and where it is
Frankley is a suburban area in the West Midlands, situated near the River Rea and close to the Lickey Hills. Frankley sits at an elevation of 206 metres, with Frankley Hill nearby offering views of the surrounding countryside. Frankley is located approximately 7 miles southwest of Birmingham city centre, with nearby areas including Rubery and Frankley Green. Frankley has a population of around 5568 people, predominantly living in terraced housing.
AdBlue drains in Frankley and across West Midlands
Frankley is a residential suburb, and our teams that cover it also work the places around it, Rubery and Frankley Green among them, across the B postcode area. Fastest of all: give a B45 0 postcode to our van.
There's no need to move your car. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Balaam's Wood Local Nature Reserve, a side street close to Tenants Hall: we drain the vehicle where it stands. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Omniplex Cinema, ring and ask instead of assuming.
For Frankley drivers, the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it where it stands, anywhere in West Midlands: switch it off then call 0333 366 0103.