Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Lawley Bank: Why It Happens
Pause reading for a moment if your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then phone 0333 366 0103. In Lawley Bank, catching it before the motor turns usually leaves a drain and a full flush on the spot. The remainder of this page covers why it occurs and how to ensure it doesn't — useful if you are reading ahead of time.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Plenty of newer diesels in The Rock, as well as Lawley Bank, carry on two liquids; the motor takes just the diesel. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank comes with a filler of its own. Some cars put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others place both together behind one flap. At the petrol pump, your diesel side gets filled constantly. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less commonly. The slip lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank happens around Lawley Bank
Carelessness seldom explains it. What does is three things coming up together.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from your car, and running dry means limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Station Road, perhaps outside The Grazing Cow on the way home that evening.
The old car's filler is where your hand reaches — but a rental car, a new motor or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That's the second thing: a new vehicle.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the pour after it has started. It takes seconds, whether out in Lawley Common or right in the heart of Lawley Bank.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Look at these before pouring, on a forecourt in Lawley Bank or a driveway over in Old Park. Seconds, that's all.
- Check the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue caps are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually aren't.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on many cars. Check for it.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler is if it is not by the diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before knows. Ask as you collect a rental or company car — from Telford Central's car park, say — rather than once the warning appears.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
When the light comes on, anywhere in Shropshire, follow this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Martingale Way, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park and switch off first.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud while 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 the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Shut the cap, then check once more — making sure the diesel cap stayed closed the whole time. Only then, start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Don't go on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Lawley Bank already?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your motor. Don't switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel will not dilute it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of that tank, just where the fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — Asda, Sainsbury's or another — the attendants will normally help push the vehicle clear, when you ask. If you're on your own drive in Lawley Bank, leave it where it is.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Lawley Bank sits under a mile from the M54; there, use the next junction. About how far did it go? Hopping across Lawley Bank is less work than a trip of under 25 miles to Wolverhampton, so say.
Our arrival in Lawley Bank, and what happens next
Our van comes to the vehicle anywhere it has come to rest — your own drive, near The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or by Lawley Village Academy. Those replies decide the work and our quote, and so our engineers ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it has run. Nobody sets off before you've heard the price by phone.
Then that tank is drained and the system flushed thoroughly. 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 counts more here than with petrol. Testing is at the end: before that, fresh diesel is added, and the filter is cleaned or changed if necessary. Before leaving, we fire it up and make sure that it's running properly.
Using pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where the engine hasn't run need roughly half an hour after our engineers are there. The insurer usually wants an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. Wrong-fuel cover is part of many insurance policies — so use the wait to look at yours.
About Lawley Bank, for a moment
Lawley Bank is a suburban area in Shropshire, situated inland at an elevation of 188 metres, with Lawley Bank being one of several residential communities in the area. Lawley Bank lies near Lawley Common and Dawley Bank, and is characterized by its semi-detached housing stock. Lawley Bank is located approximately 15.9 miles from Wolverhampton and 128.4 miles from London, making it a commuter base for the wider West Midlands region.
AdBlue drains across Shropshire, Lawley Bank included
Dawley Bank and Lawley are among the towns near Lawley Bank, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, throughout TF postcodes. A postcode starting TF4 2 gets our van to you fastest.
Your car remains put. Wherever it sits — near Second Lieutenant Clifford Wallace Jenson USAAF, on a lay-by heading to North Base, at home — that's where it gets emptied. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Dawley Baptist Church, ring and ask rather than guessing.
Lawley Bank drivers: the short version
Read the cap before you pour. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Leave the vehicle switched off and call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, across Shropshire.