Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Leegomery
Stop reading a minute if the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, carried out just where the car stands around Leegomery, is usually what it takes when caught before your motor runs. Not happened yet? Below, the page covers the why it happens and the how to avoid it altogether.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Not one fluid but two: that's what many newer diesels near Leegomery and Dothill run, with diesel feeding your engine. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust gas and cleans it.
There is a filler for each tank. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the arrangement on a lot of cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. At the pump, the 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 frequently. It's in that gap that the error lives.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place in Leegomery
It's seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the car goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Heatherdale before work, or in the car park outside The Park on the way home.
New-to-you vehicles come next, as well. Hire cars, new motors and company vehicles put their fillers differently, and habit goes for the cap it used on the old one.
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, be it out in Wellington or bang in the centre of Leegomery.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
A couple of seconds is all these take — so check them before you pour anything, on a drive in Ketley or a forecourt in Leegomery.
- Position can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually do not.
- Many motors give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows where it lives when the filler is not next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Wellington (Shropshire), ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
On the day the warning appears — wherever it is in Shropshire — a simple routine to follow.
- Pull in somewhere level, engine off, with time in hand — not hurried on the side of Kestrel Court.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, perhaps, but it does the trick.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Find at the second or third step that the bottle went into the diesel filler? That is where you stop. Step five stays out.
Leegomery: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the motor. Keep your ignition off as well, because on many diesels switching it on alone runs the fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is pulled from.
On a forecourt — Morrisons, Springhill or any other — the attendants will normally help roll the car away, when you ask. If you are on your own driveway in Leegomery, leave the car where it is.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Leegomery lies under 3 miles from the M54; on it, use the next exit. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Leegomery is less work than a run of under 25 miles towards Wolverhampton, so say.
Leegomery: what takes place when our technicians turn up
Our van comes to your car wherever it stopped — your own driveway, beside Apley Castle, or by Apley Wood Primary Academy. Which liquid got in, the amount, and whether it ran: our technicians ask since those answers set the work and price. On the phone call itself, you hear our price — before dispatch.
Then your tank is emptied and the system flushed thoroughly. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and none of it washes out by itself. Hence it counts more. Filter cleaned or, if needed, replaced; fresh diesel in; then a check of the vehicle. Your engine is fired up next and checked to make sure it runs smoothly, all before we go.
Using pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the engine hasn't run take about half an hour once our technicians arrive. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork your insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies — so use the wait to look at yours.
About Leegomery, briefly
Leegomery is a suburban area in Shropshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 84 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Leegomery lies near the towns of Wellington and Hadley, and is close to historic sites such as Hadley Castle. Leegomery is located approximately 17.8 miles from Wolverhampton and 130.6 miles from London, making it a commuter base for those working in the nearby cities. Leegomery has a population of around 3983 residents.
AdBlue drains about Leegomery, and Shropshire beyond
Over TF postcodes, the teams covering Leegomery — a residential suburb — work the nearby locations too, Hadley and Hadley Castle included. Quickest of all: quote a TF1 6 postcode for our van.
Shifting the car is not needed. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Apley fields, a side street near Wrekin College Sport Centre: our engineers drain the vehicle where it is. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you're near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara.
In short, for Leegomery people
Read the cap before you pour. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it wherever it stands, anywhere in Shropshire: keep the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103.