Ladywood: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then put this page aside for now, leave your ignition and engine off, then call 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it's generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Ladywood. The rest of this page explains why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't — handy if you're reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Plenty of newer diesels on the roads about Ladywood and Doe Bank carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has one 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 your boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, the diesel side is topped up all the time. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less regularly. That gap is where the mistake lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Ladywood: how it takes place
Carelessness rarely explains it. Instead is three things lining up at once.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the car drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Stoneleigh Close before work, or in the car park at The Green House on the way home.
Then, your hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old car — because a rental car, a new motor or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
A spouted bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, after begun, carries on. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Ladywood or out in Ley Hill.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Moor Hall or a forecourt around Ladywood, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Position misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue ones are often blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally don't.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- Look inside the fuel flap: many motors have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says where it lives when your filler is not next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Four Oaks? Ask whoever drove the car last before you set off, not once the light goes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
Anywhere around West Midlands the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Stop somewhere level, engine off, with time in hand — not hurried on the side of Hartopp Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Shut the cap, then look again — making sure the diesel cap remained closed the whole time. After that, start the car.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Do not go on to stage five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Ladywood?
Don't start the motor: that is how the short order of things begins. Do not switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is sucked from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it's the Shell or the Texaco, ask the staff to help push your car clear of the pump. On your own drive in Ladywood? Then your car remains put.
Already run? Stop once it's safe, then turn off. Ladywood sits under 3 miles from the M6 Toll; on it, take the first exit. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Birmingham, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Ladywood.
What occurs when our engineers get there in Ladywood
Outside Coppice Primary School, near Four Oaks Methodist Church or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our engineers come to it. Which fluid went in, the quantity, and whether it ran: we ask because those answers decide both work and price. That quote comes over the phone, before any van leaves.
Next: draining, then a thorough flush of the entire system. More than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: the crystals build up, certain metals are attacked, and none of it clears away unaided, no matter how long it is left. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. The motor is fired up next and tested to make sure it runs properly, all before our engineers leave.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour once our technicians arrive, provided the engine has not run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet after dark outside a house. Nothing in advance; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. It is worth checking your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Ladywood itself
Ladywood is a suburban area located on the riverside in the West Midlands, with an elevation of around 152 metres. Ladywood sits approximately 7 miles from Birmingham city centre and 103 miles from London. Ladywood is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock and is near to several local amenities, including Ley Hill and Four Oaks Park. Ladywood is a relatively small community with a population of around 1073 residents.
AdBlue drains around Ladywood and across West Midlands
Being a residential suburb, Ladywood shares its vans nearby places — Four Oaks Park, Tudor Hill — all the way through B postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. A postcode starting B74 2 gets our van to you fastest.
There's no need to shift the vehicle. Anywhere it stands — near Keepers Well, on a lay-by heading to Upper Nut Hurst, at home — that's where it gets drained. Assuming won't help at the back of War Memorial, close to a boundary, or anywhere awkward to pin down; ring and ask.
In short, for Ladywood motorists
Read the cap before you tip. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it where it is, anywhere in West Midlands: switch the car off and call 0333 366 0103.