Kings Coughton: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Leave the engine and ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. A drain plus a thorough flush, done just where the vehicle stands in Kings Coughton, is normally what it takes if found before your motor runs. Here in advance? Then the rest covers why it happens and what to stop it ever happening.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Plenty of newer diesels on the roads round Kings Coughton and Oversley Green carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, and there a spray cleans the fumes.
Each tank has its own filler. Plenty of vehicles share a single flap for both, while some move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Topping up the diesel side at the pump happens all the time. Rarely topped up, AdBlue usually comes from a bottle, poured by a driver who must stop and think what filler to use. It is in the gap that the slip happens.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen in Kings Coughton?
Carelessness rarely causes it. What does is three things coming up at once.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from the vehicle, and running out means limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Alcester Heath, or outside The Roebuck on the way home that evening.
The old car's cap is where the hand goes — yet a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That is the second thing: a strange motor.
A spouted bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, once started, keeps on. It's seconds, be it in Alcester or right in the heart of Kings Coughton.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
A couple of seconds is all these take — so check them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Kinwarton or a forecourt around Kings Coughton.
- Check the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue ones are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally aren't.
- Many cars give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Look for it.
- The handbook shows which it is if your filler isn't next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Wootton Wawen.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Warwickshire that is.
- Switch off after you park — flat ground, motor off, and not in a rush by A435 at the roadside.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you've found your filler and read the cap.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Don't go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Kings Coughton?
The short order of things, starting with not starting your motor. Keep the ignition off too, because on many diesels it by itself starts your pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is drawn from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it is the Gulf or the BP, ask the attendants to help push the car clear of the petrol pump. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive in Kings Coughton.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. The next exit means the place to leave if you are on the M42, under 10 miles from Kings Coughton. Mileage counts — a short hop across Kings Coughton makes a smaller job than heading under 15 miles towards Worcester — so tell us roughly how far it went.
Kings Coughton: what takes place when our technicians get there
The van comes to the vehicle anywhere it stopped — your own drive, beside Alcester's Positivity Rockline, or outside St Nicholas CofE Primary. The answers decide this work and the quote, and so our technicians ask what was put in, about how much, and whether it's run. During the call itself, you are told the quote — ahead of dispatch.
The fuel system is then flushed thoroughly, once your tank is emptied. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. Testing is at the end: before that, fresh diesel is added, and the fuel filter is cleaned or replaced if necessary. Next our technicians fire it up and check it runs correctly before we leave.
With pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where the engine has not run need roughly half an hour after our engineers arrive. Your insurer usually wants the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours once this job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. Wrong-fuel cover is part of many insurance policies — so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Kings Coughton
Kings Coughton is a small village in Warwickshire, situated on the banks of a river at an elevation of around 50 metres. Kings Coughton lies near the towns of Alcester and Coughton, and is within commuting distance of Worcester. Kings Coughton has a population of approximately 585 people, predominantly living in detached houses.
AdBlue drains across Warwickshire, Kings Coughton included
As a village, Kings Coughton has the same vans as nearby areas — Coughton Fields, Coughton — all the way across B postcodes and the surrounding area around them. Fastest of all: quote a B49 5 postcode for the van.
No need to move your car. Anywhere it stands — near Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses, in a layby heading to Alcester Grammar School Playing Fields, at home — that's where it gets cleared. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Our Lady & St Joseph Catholic Church.
Kings Coughton people: the short version
First, the cap; after that, the tip. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere in Warwickshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless — and so leave it off then ring 0333 366 0103.