Ipsley: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Keep the motor and ignition off and call 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Normally, if the engine hasn't turned, it is emptied and fully flushed where the car is around Ipsley. The rest of this page covers why it takes place and how to ensure it does not — handy if you are reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel feeds the engine — but many current diesels driven round Ipsley and Winyates carry a second fluid too. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust stream to clean it.
Every tank has a filler of its own. Other cars put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty more have both together under one flap. Diesel gets filled on each filling station visit, week in, week out. Rarely topped up, AdBlue usually goes in out of a bottle, tipped by a driver who must stop and think which cap to use. The mistake grows in that gap between the two.
Ipsley: how AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a drive off Icknield Street Drive before work, or in the car park outside The Golden Goose heading home: that's where the hurried top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it's empty, limp mode kicks in.
The old car's filler is where the hand goes — yet a rental car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That's a second thing: a new motor.
A spouted bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, once started, keeps on. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Ipsley or out in Park Farm.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Look at these first, at a forecourt in Ipsley or a drive over in Winyates Green. Seconds, that's all.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- On plenty of motors, size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Check inside the fuel flap: plenty of cars carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says which it lives if the filler is not next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Redditch.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
Wherever across Worcestershire the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Pull in on level, motor off, with time to spare — not hurried on the side of Ipsley Church Lane.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, yes, yet it does the trick.
- The diesel cap remains on. When the two share a flap, make sure it's closed before the bottle comes up.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start your car: close the cap, check again, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Discover during the second or third stage that AdBlue went into the diesel tank? That is where you stop. Step five is off limits.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Ipsley?
The short order of things, beginning with no starting the engine. The fuel pump starts on many diesels the moment the ignition goes on — and so leave it off. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is pulled from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it's the Morrisons Fuel or the Esso, ask the staff to help push the vehicle away from the petrol pump. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive around Ipsley.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Leave the M42 — under 5 miles out of Ipsley — at the next junction. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Ipsley is less a job than a trip of under 15 miles towards Birmingham, and so tell us.
What happens when our engineers turn up around Ipsley
By Matchborough First School Academy, near St Peter's Church, Ipsley or on your own driveway: wherever the car has stopped, our engineers come to it. Both the work and our price depend on three answers — what liquid, which quantity, and whether it's run — so our engineers ask. The price is given over the phone, before any van leaves.
Then the tank is cleared and the fuel system rinsed thoroughly. More than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: crystals build up, some metals corrode, and none of that clears away unaided, no matter how long it sits. Testing comes last: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and the fuel filter is cleaned or replaced if necessary. We don't go until it has been fired up and is running smoothly.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour after our technicians arrive, provided the engine hasn't run — and the pumps we use are fine on a live forecourt and quiet after dark outside a house. 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 as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Ipsley
Ipsley is a suburban area in Worcestershire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 91 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Ipsley is located near several other residential areas, including Park Farm, Greenlands, and Matchborough. Ipsley sits approximately 12.6 miles southwest of Birmingham and 93.3 miles northwest of London, making it a commuter-friendly location. Ipsley has a population of around 3204 residents.
Ipsley and Worcestershire: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout B postcodes, the teams that cover Ipsley — a residential suburb — work the surrounding places too, Matchborough and Greenlands among them. Quote a postcode beginning B98 0, and the van gets there fastest.
There's no need to move your car. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Ipsley Meadows (Arrow Valley Country Park), a side street close to Arrowvale Sports and Leisure Centre: our technicians drain the vehicle where it stands. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Christ Church.
Ipsley drivers: the short version
Pour no AdBlue till you've read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere around Worcestershire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — so leave the car off and phone 0333 366 0103.