How It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Kingsland
Stop reading a minute when the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and call 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Kingsland. Not happened yet? Below, the page covers the reasons it occurs and the ways to avoid it for good.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Diesel goes to your engine — but many modern diesels driven round Kingsland and Frankwell carry another liquid too. Your exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the fumes to clean it, from its own tank.
Each tank comes with a filler of its own. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in on every forecourt call-out, week in, week out. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less often. That gap is where the mistake lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Kingsland: how it occurs
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
Haste comes from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a drive off Canonbury, or on the way home in the car park at The Coach & Horses.
Then the car is strange. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
No part stops the pour after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Kingsland or out in Belle Vue.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Porthill or a forecourt around Kingsland, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally is not. Read it instead of going by position.
- The size. On plenty of cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on many motors. Check for it.
- Cannot see it beside the diesel inlet? Then check below the bonnet or inside your boot — the owner's manual says where.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at Shrewsbury, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
On the day the light appears — wherever it is around Shropshire — a simple routine to use.
- Stop somewhere level, motor off, with time to spare — never rushing on the side of Kingsland Bridge.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, yes, but it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before you start your car, close the cap and check again that your diesel cap never came off.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Never go on to stage five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Kingsland?
Short list, then. First: the engine remains off. The fuel pump runs on many diesels as soon as your ignition goes on — and so leave it off. Topping up with diesel won't thin it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the base of that tank, right where fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — Asda, Esso or another — the staff will usually help push the car clear, if you ask. On your own drive around Kingsland? So your car stays where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the motor has already run. Kingsland sits under 10 miles from the M54; there, use the first junction. A short hop across Kingsland is a smaller job than a run towards Wrexham, under 50 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
What takes place when we get there around Kingsland
The van reaches the vehicle anywhere it stopped — your own drive, near Buzzard Sculpture, or outside Coleham Primary School. Which liquid went in, the quantity, and whether it ran: our technicians ask since the answers set both work and quote. On the call itself, you hear our quote — ahead of anything else.
Next: a drain, then a thorough flush of the whole system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. After the filter has been flushed — or replaced, where required — fresh diesel goes in, and finally your car is tested. Before we leave, our technicians fire it up and make sure that it's running smoothly.
With pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the motor hasn't run need roughly half an hour after our engineers are there. The insurer usually wants an 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. Before we get there, have a look at your policy; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Kingsland
Kingsland is a suburban area in Shropshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 71 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Kingsland is located near several nearby places, including Belle Vue, Shrewsbury, and Coleham, and is approximately 25.8 miles from the nearest city, Wrexham. Kingsland has a population of around 4057 residents and is about 138.9 miles from London. Kingsland forms a distinct part of the local community, with its own character and amenities.
AdBlue drains across Shropshire, Kingsland included
As a residential suburb, Kingsland shares its vans nearby places — Shrewsbury, Coleham — all the way across SY postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. Fastest of all: give a SY3 7 postcode to the van.
The car does not need to move. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Burrs Field Countryside Site, a side street close to Pugh Boathouse: we drain it where it sits. Guessing doesn't help behind Shrewsbury School Chapel, on a border, or somewhere hard to describe; ring and check.
In short, for Kingsland people
First, the cap; then, the pour. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere in Shropshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — and so leave the car off and phone 0333 366 0103.