--- title: Lichfield: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank, Explained canonical: https://www.petrolinadieselcar.co.uk/adblue-in-diesel/lichfield-staffordshire/ location: Lichfield county: Staffordshire latitude: 52.683080 longitude: -1.827290 service: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank updated: 2026-10-03 --- # AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Lichfield: Why It Occurs and How to Stop It If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and your ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, carried out right where your vehicle sits around Lichfield, is usually what it takes when found before your engine runs. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it does not. ## Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler? Diesel goes to the motor — yet many newer diesels driven about Lichfield and Leomansley hold a second fluid as well. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it. Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, side by side: that's the layout on many cars. On others, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in your boot instead. Filling the diesel side at the petrol pump happens constantly. Rarely filled, AdBlue normally goes in from a bottle, poured by a driver who has to stop and think which filler it needs. The slip lives in that gap. ## Lichfield: how AdBlue in the diesel tank happens Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them. The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out completely, the vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Bore Street before work, or in the car park outside George IV on the way home. Next, your hand goes for the cap it knew on the old car — since a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't. No part halts the tip once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Lichfield or out in Christ Church. ## Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler A few seconds is all these take — so check them before you tip anything, on a drive in Nether Stowe or a forecourt around Lichfield. - Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Go by the cap, not its position. - Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of motors, the AdBlue one. - The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many cars say there which fuel goes where. - In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler sits if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook says which. - The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Lichfield City, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on. ## How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank The day the light goes on, wherever around Staffordshire, follow this routine. - Stop somewhere level, engine off, with time in hand — not rushing on the side of Breadmarket Street. - Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" aloud as unscrewing it. It sounds daft. It works. - The two under a single flap? So make sure the cap on the diesel side is still shut ahead of lifting the bottle. - Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty. - Close the cap, and check again — confirm the diesel cap remained shut throughout. Only then, start the car. Find at the second or third step that AdBlue went into the diesel tank? That's where you stop. Don't go on to stage five. ## AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Lichfield? Then the order of things is short. Do not start the motor. Do not switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is sucked from — so do not top up with diesel to thin it. Ask the staff to help roll the vehicle clear of the petrol pump if you are at a forecourt — the Tesco, the Morrisons or somewhere else. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive around Lichfield. Where your motor has been run by now, stop somewhere safe and turn the car off. Lichfield sits under 3 miles from the M6 Toll; there, take the next exit. A short hop across Lichfield is a smaller job than a run towards Wolverhampton, under 15 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went. ## Lichfield: what takes place when we arrive Our technicians come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside St Michael's CofE (C) Primary School, near Guildhall or on your own driveway. Which liquid was put in, the amount, and if it ran: we ask because the replies decide both work and quote. You get that quote on the phone, before anyone sets off. After that: draining, then a thorough flush of the whole system. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. Once the filter has been cleaned — or renewed, where needed — clean diesel goes in, and then the vehicle gets tested. Before leaving, our engineers fire it up and make sure that it's running properly. If the engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. The insurer will ask for an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. It's worth looking at your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies. ## About Lichfield, for a moment Lichfield is a city located in the county of Staffordshire, situated beside a series of lakes and pools, at an elevation of around 87 metres. Lichfield sits in the heart of the West Midlands region, approximately 108 miles northwest of London, and is close to nearby places such as Christ Church and Stowe. Lichfield is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock and is a short distance from the city of Wolverhampton. Lichfield has a population of around 34,928 people. ## AdBlue drains around Lichfield, and Staffordshire beyond Being a cathedral city, Lichfield shares its vans nearby areas — Stowe, Sandfields — right across WS postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. Quote a postcode beginning WS13 6, and the van gets there fastest. The vehicle doesn't need to move. Anywhere it stands — near Lichfield Library, on a lay-by en route to Remembrance Garden, at home — that is where it is drained. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of St Mary's in the Market Square. ## In short, for Lichfield people Before you pour, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere around Staffordshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — so leave the car off and ring 0333 366 0103.