Why It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Hill Top
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and the ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it's generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Hill Top. Not happened yet? Below, the rest of the page explains the why it occurs and the ways to avoid it for good.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Plenty of modern diesels in High Town, as well as Hill Top, carry on two fluids; your motor gets just the diesel. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust gas and cleans it.
Each tank comes with one filler of its own. Other motors put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others have both together under one flap. The diesel side is topped up at the pump all the time. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less frequently. It is in the gap that the error happens.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Hill Top: how it occurs
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
Hurry comes from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a drive off Hill Street, or heading home in the car park outside Plough and Harrow.
Then the car is strange. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, once begun, keeps on. Church Hill or the middle of Hill Top: it is the same few seconds either way.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A few seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you pour anything, on a drive in West Hill or a forecourt in Hill Top.
- Read the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue caps are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually aren't.
- The size. On plenty of vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Lift the flap and look for a label — plenty of vehicles mark which goes in each inlet just there.
- Cannot see it beside the diesel inlet? Then check beneath the bonnet or in the boot — the owner's manual will say which.
- The previous driver knows. Ask as you collect a hire car or company car — from Hednesford's car park, say — rather than when the warning comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
Wherever around Staffordshire the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Not in a rush on the side of A460, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park then switch off first.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- The two under a single flap? So confirm the lid on your diesel side is still shut ahead of raising the bottle.
- Stop when the tank fills or the bottle runs dry; before that, pour slowly using the built-in spout.
- Close the cap, then look once more — making sure your diesel cap stayed shut the whole time. Only then, start the car.
Find at step two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? Then stop right there. Don't carry on to step five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Hill Top?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the engine. Do not switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Thinning it with extra diesel won't work, because AdBlue sinks to the base rather than blending — and that's where the fuel is sucked from.
Ask the attendants to help push the car away from the pump if you're at a forecourt — the Esso, the Texaco or anywhere else. At home around Hill Top? So the car stays put.
Already run? Pull over once it is sensible, then switch off. The next exit is the place to leave if you're on the M6 Toll, under 3 miles from Hill Top. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Lichfield, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Hill Top.
What happens when we arrive around Hill Top
The van reaches the car anywhere it stopped — your own drive, beside Kingsmead Independent Baptist Church, or by St Joseph's Catholic Primary School. What liquid was put in, the amount, and whether it ran: our technicians ask since the replies set both work and quote. The quote is given on the call, before any van leaves.
Draining that tank comes next, then a thorough flush of the fuel system. Much more than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: the crystals form, some metals are attacked, and nothing washes away unaided, no matter how long it is left. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. The motor is fired up next and tested to be sure it runs smoothly, all before our technicians head off.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour after our engineers get there, provided the engine has not run — and the pumps we use are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet after dark beside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Hill Top itself
Hill Top is a suburban area in Staffordshire, situated on the riverside with a mix of semi-detached housing. Hill Top sits at an elevation of 171 metres, approximately 7.3 miles from the city of Lichfield. Hill Top is part of a larger residential area that includes nearby places such as Church Hill and Littleworth. Hill Top has a population of around 4409 people, with the majority living in semi-detached homes.
AdBlue drains in Hill Top and across Staffordshire
Hill Top is a residential suburb, and the teams that cover it also work the towns around it, Littleworth and Hednesford among them, across the WS postcode area. A postcode starting WS12 1 gets our van to you fastest.
The vehicle remains where it is. Draining happens right there, whether a drive, a street by Our Lady of Lourdes, or a layby towards Fafnirs Field. Assuming won't help behind St Peters, close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe; ring and check.
The short version for Hill Top drivers
Always, the cap; then, the pour. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Keep it switched off then phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, across Staffordshire.