Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Hardwick: Why It Happens
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and your ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, done just where the car stands in Hardwick, is usually all it takes if found before your engine runs. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Diesel feeds the motor — yet plenty of current diesels driven round Hardwick and Little Aston hold another liquid as well. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust stream to clean it.
Different tanks, separate fillers. Other cars keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot more place both together behind one flap. Topping up your diesel side at the petrol pump happens all the time. Rarely filled, AdBlue usually goes in out of a bottle, tipped by a driver who has to stop and think what filler it needs. The mistake grows in the gap between them.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank occur around Hardwick?
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
On a driveway off Rydal Close before work, or in the car park outside The Hardwick Arms heading home: that's where the hurried top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low your car warns you, and if it's gone, limp mode kicks in.
Then, your hand goes for the cap it knew on the old car — because a hire car, a new motor or a company car places the fillers where your last one didn't.
Lastly, the bottle fits: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in just as easily, and once the pour begins, nothing halts it. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Hardwick or out in Bourne Vale.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Be it a Hardwick forecourt or a driveway out in Mill Green, take a couple of seconds on these before anything goes in.
- Check the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue caps are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally aren't.
- On many cars, size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Look inside the fuel flap: many motors have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows which it lives when your filler is not next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park at Butlers Lane? Ask the person who drove the car last before you set off, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
Anywhere in West Midlands the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Pull in somewhere level, engine off, with time in hand — not rushing on the side of Grange Drive.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, perhaps, yet it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start your car: close the cap, check again, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Discover during the second or third stage that AdBlue went into the diesel tank? That's where you stop. Skip step five altogether.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Hardwick?
Don't start the engine: that's how the short order of things begins. Leave your ignition off as well, since on many diesels it alone runs your pump. Filling up with diesel will not weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of your tank, right where fuel is taken from.
At a forecourt — BP, Shell or another — the staff will usually help roll your car clear, when you ask. Your own drive in Hardwick is where it should stay.
Where the engine has run already, stop safely and turn the vehicle off. The next exit means the place to leave when you're on the M6, under 3 miles from Hardwick. Mileage counts — a quick hop across Hardwick makes a smaller job than driving under 10 miles towards Lichfield — so tell us roughly how far it went.
Our arrival in Hardwick, and what takes place next
Wherever your car has stopped, whether by Manor Primary School, beside Streetly Methodist Recreation Centre or at home, the van travels to it. Both the work and our price rest on three answers — what liquid, what amount, and whether it's run — so we ask. No one sets off until you have heard the quote over the phone.
Then that tank is emptied and the system rinsed thoroughly. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own. Once your filter has been flushed — or replaced, where needed — fresh diesel is added, and finally your car gets tested. The motor is fired up next and tested to confirm it runs correctly, all before our engineers go.
Unstarted cars mostly mean a half-hour job after the moment we arrive. The kit is safe on a busy forecourt, and hushed enough for a driveway late at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies — and so use the wait to look at yours.
About Hardwick and where it is
Hardwick is a village in the West Midlands, situated inland at an elevation of 156 metres, approximately 7 miles from Lichfield. Hardwick has a population of around 2437 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Hardwick is located near other local places such as Bourne Vale, Streetly, and Barr Common, and is about 105 miles northwest of London.
AdBlue drains about Hardwick, and West Midlands beyond
Throughout B postcodes, our teams that cover Hardwick — a rural village — work the surrounding spots too, Barr Common and Streetly included. A postcode starting B74 3 gets the van to you fastest.
The car stays put. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street near War Memorial Cross, a lay-by on the way to Sunnybank Wood, a drive. Guessing doesn't help at the back of All Saints Parish Church, Streetly, on a border, or anywhere hard to pin down; phone and ask.
The short version for Hardwick people
First, the cap; then, the pour. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it waits, anywhere in West Midlands.