Loggerheads: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case set this page aside a moment, leave your ignition and motor off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Usually, if the motor hasn't run, it's drained and fully rinsed where the vehicle sits around Loggerheads. Reading before the event? In that case what follows covers why it happens and what to stop it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Diesel goes to your engine — yet plenty of current diesels driven around Loggerheads and Jugbank carry another liquid as well. Your exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the fumes to fresh it, from its own tank.
There is a filler for every tank. Some vehicles put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others place the two side by side under one flap. The diesel side is topped up at the petrol pump all the time. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less often. It is in the gap that the error happens.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank happens around Loggerheads
Carelessness seldom causes it. What does is three things lining up together.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from your car, and running dry means limp mode — so a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Eccleshall Road, perhaps outside The Loggerheads on the way home after work.
Then your car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Third, the bottle goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in as easily, and after the pour starts, no part stops it. Tadgedale or the middle of Loggerheads: it takes the same few seconds either way.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Ashley Dale or a forecourt in Loggerheads, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Read the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue caps are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually are not.
- On plenty of vehicles, size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Lift the filler flap and look for a label — plenty of cars show what belongs in each inlet just there.
- Cannot find it beside your diesel filler? In that case look beneath the bonnet or in your boot — the owner's manual says where.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Norton Bridge.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Staffordshire that is.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Newcastle Road.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" aloud while unscrewing it. It seems daft. It works.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where the two share a flap, confirm it is shut before the bottle comes up.
- Stop when that tank fills or the bottle runs dry; until then, tip gently through the built-in spout.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check once more, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Leave out step five entirely.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Loggerheads?
Short order, then. Top of that: the motor stays off. Do not switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is pulled from — so do not top up with diesel to thin it.
The staff at Croxton Service Station, Shell or another forecourt will usually help to push your car clear if asked. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive in Loggerheads.
Already run? Stop once it's safe, then switch off. On the M6, under 10 miles from Loggerheads, that means the next junction. A short hop across Loggerheads is a smaller job than a run towards Stoke-on-Trent, under 15 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
When our engineers turn up around Loggerheads, what occurs?
By Hugo Meynell CofE (VC) Primary School, near Providence Chapel or on your own driveway: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our technicians come to it. Both the work and our price rest on three answers — which liquid, what amount, and if it's run — so our engineers ask. During the call itself, you hear our quote — before anything else.
Draining the tank comes next, followed by a full flush of the fuel system. Much more than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: the crystals build up, certain metals corrode, and nothing clears out on its own, no matter how long it sits. The filter flushed or, where it must be, swapped; clean diesel in; then a test of the vehicle. Before we leave, our technicians start it and confirm that it is running smoothly.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour once our technicians get there, provided your motor hasn't run — and the pumps our engineers use are safe on a live forecourt and quiet after dark beside a house. Your insurer will ask for an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both once the job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Loggerheads
Loggerheads is a village in Staffordshire, situated in the inland countryside of the West Midlands region, with an elevation of around 195 metres. Loggerheads lies approximately 11.5 miles from Stoke-on-Trent and 136.7 miles from London, surrounded by nearby places such as Tadgedale, Ashley Heath, and Hookgate. Loggerheads has a population of around 1616 people, predominantly living in detached housing. Loggerheads is characterized by its rural setting and residential community.
Loggerheads and Staffordshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Loggerheads is a rural village, and our vans that cover it also work the places near it, Ashley Heath and Hookgate among them, across the TF postcode area. A postcode starting TF9 4 gets our van to you fastest.
The vehicle does not need to move. Draining takes place on the spot, whether a driveway, a road near Ashley Memorial Hall, or a layby on the way to Burnt Wood. Guessing won't help behind St Mary's, on a border, or somewhere awkward to describe; phone and check.
The short version for Loggerheads people
First, the cap; after that, the tip. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will empty it wherever it is, anywhere around Staffordshire: switch the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103.