AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Hill Top: Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It
Stop reading for a moment when the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then phone 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, carried out just where your car sits in Hill Top, is usually what it takes when found before your motor runs. The rest of this page explains why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't — handy if you're reading ahead of time.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Diesel feeds your engine — yet many modern diesels driven around Hill Top and Heath End hold a second fluid as well. Your exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the gas to fresh them, from a separate tank.
There's a filler on each tank. Plenty of motors have a single flap for both, while others move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is fuelled at the petrol pump all the time. Rarely topped up, AdBlue usually comes out of a bottle, tipped by a driver who has to stop and think what cap it needs. The mistake lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs in Hill Top
It is rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the vehicle, and running dry means limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Donnithorne Avenue, perhaps at The Arches on the way home that evening.
Then the car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the pour after it has started. Chilvers Coton or the middle of Hill Top: it takes the same few seconds either way.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Check these first, on a forecourt around Hill Top or a driveway over in Griff. Seconds, no more.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- Many cars give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of cars say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says where it lives if the filler isn't next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at Bermuda Park, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
Anywhere around Warwickshire the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Turn off once parked — level ground, engine stopped, and never rushed beside Knebley Crescent on the verge.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, yes, yet it works.
- The two behind a single flap? So make sure the cap on your diesel side stays shut ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Finish once your tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; before that, pour slowly through its built-in spout.
- Before starting the car, shut the cap and look again that your diesel cap was never came off.
Find at stage two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? So stop just there. Stage five stays off limits.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Hill Top?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the engine. Leave the ignition off as well, since on plenty of diesels it by itself runs your pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is pulled from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
The staff at the nearest petrol station, Texaco or any forecourt will usually lend a hand pushing your car away if you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive in Hill Top.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. On the M6, under 5 miles from Hill Top, that means the next junction. Mileage counts — a short hop across Hill Top is a smaller job than driving under 10 miles towards Coventry — so tell us roughly how far it went.
Hill Top: what happens when our technicians arrive
The van comes to the vehicle wherever it stopped — your own drive, beside All Saints Church, or by All Saints CofE Primary School and Nursery, Nuneaton. Which fluid went in, the quantity, and if it ran: our engineers ask because those replies set the work and quote. You get that quote by phone, before anybody heads out.
The system is then rinsed thoroughly, once the tank is cleared. 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 that counts more here than with petrol. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. We do not leave until it has been fired up and is running correctly.
Unrun vehicles mostly need a half-hour job from the moment we arrive. The kit is fine on a live filling station, and quiet enough for a residential street after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It's worth looking at your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Hill Top, briefly
Hill Top is a suburban area in Warwickshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of around 110 metres. Hill Top lies approximately 7 miles from Coventry and 90 miles from London, with nearby places including Chilvers Coton, Bermuda, and Attleborough. Hill Top has a population of around 4132 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Hill Top forms part of the wider Coventry urban area, with its residents benefiting from the city's amenities and services.
AdBlue drains across Warwickshire, Hill Top included
Over CV postcodes, our teams that cover Hill Top — a residential suburb — work the surrounding spots too, Attleborough and Bermuda included. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting CV10 7.
Shifting the car is not needed. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street close to Bermuda Pheonix Centre, a lay-by on the way to Riversley Park Pitch & Putt, a driveway. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of The Pingles Stadium.
The short version for Hill Top drivers
Before you tip, read the cap. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it wherever it is, wherever around Warwickshire: switch the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103.