Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Kates Hill: Why It Happens
Pause here a minute when the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Normally, when the motor hasn't run, it's emptied and fully cleaned where your vehicle sits around Kates Hill. The remainder of this page explains why it happens and how to make sure it does not — useful if you are reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Many newer diesels on the roads about Kates Hill and Cawney Hill carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust stream and cleans it.
There is a filler on every tank. Other vehicles keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others place both together under one flap. At the pump, the diesel side is topped up constantly. The AdBlue side is filled far less regularly, normally from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. It's in the gap that the mistake lives.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank take place in Kates Hill?
Carelessness rarely causes it. What does is three things coming up at once.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out altogether, your vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Bean Road before work, or in the car park outside Ex-servicemens Club (Dudley) Ltd on the way home.
The old car's filler is where the hand goes — but a rental car, a new car or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That's the second factor: a new car.
No part halts the pour after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It takes seconds, whether out in Dixons Green or right in the heart of Kates Hill.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Check these first, on a forecourt in Kates Hill or a driveway out in Old Dock. A few seconds, that's all.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- On plenty of cars, the size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Lift the filler flap and look for a label — many motors mark what goes in which inlet right there.
- The handbook says where 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 — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Dudley Port.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
When the light goes on, anywhere around West Midlands, follow this routine.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Dixons Green Road.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap works — after you have found your filler and read it.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check again, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Find at the second or third step that AdBlue went in the wrong tank? That is where you stop. Never go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Kates Hill already?
Do not start the engine: that is where the short order of things starts. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels the moment your ignition goes on — and so leave it off. Filling up with diesel will not dilute it: instead, AdBlue drops to the base of the tank, just where fuel is taken from.
The staff at the nearest petrol station, Texaco or any forecourt will normally lend a hand pushing the vehicle away if you ask. Your own drive around Kates Hill is the place it stays.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Kates Hill sits under 3 miles from the M5; on it, use the first exit. About how far did it go? Hopping across Kates Hill is less a job than a run of under 10 miles to Wolverhampton, and so say.
When our engineers arrive around Kates Hill, what happens?
Our engineers come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Kates Hill Primary School, near Dixons Green Methodist Church or on your own driveway. Those replies decide the work and our price, so our technicians ask what got in, about how much, and whether it's run. You get that price on the phone, before anybody heads out.
After that: a drain, then a thorough flush of the entire system. More than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: the crystals build up, certain metals corrode, and nothing clears out unaided, no matter how long it sits. Filter flushed or, if it must be, swapped; clean diesel in; and then a test of the car. We do not go until it has been fired up and is running correctly.
If the engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. The insurer will ask for an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both once this job is done. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. While we travel, have a look at your insurance documents; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Kates Hill
Kates Hill is a suburban area in the West Midlands, situated approximately 5.9 miles from Wolverhampton and 107.8 miles from London. Kates Hill sits at an elevation of 215 metres, overlooking the surrounding landscape. Kates Hill is characterised by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock, with nearby areas including Dixons Green and Dudley. Kates Hill forms part of the larger West Midlands conurbation, with a population of around 7644 residents.
Kates Hill and West Midlands: AdBlue drains across the area
Over DY postcodes, the teams that cover Kates Hill — a residential suburb — work the nearby places too, Tansley Hill and Dudley among them. Quickest of all: give a DY2 8 postcode for our van.
Your car remains put. A drive, a lay-by on the way to The Hawthorns Field, a side street close to Dudley Christadelphian Hall: our technicians drain the vehicle where it is. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Dudley Citadel, ring and ask rather than guessing.
In short, for Kates Hill motorists
Always, the cap; after that, the pour. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Leave it switched off and call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, across West Midlands.