How It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Londonderry
Pause reading a minute when your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and phone 0333 366 0103. In Londonderry, catching it before the motor turns usually means a drain and a full flush on the spot. The rest of this page explains why it occurs and how to ensure it doesn't — handy if you're reading ahead of time.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Many newer diesels on the roads around Londonderry and Langley Green carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. The exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the gas to clean it, from its own tank.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the layout on many motors. On others, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. The diesel side is topped up at the pump all the time. Much less regularly, the AdBlue side gets filled — normally from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. Mistakes happen in that gap between them.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs around Londonderry
Carelessness rarely explains it. What does is three things coming up together.
On a driveway off Awefields Crescent before work, or in the car park outside The Hollybush on the way home: that's where the rushed top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low your car warns you, and if it's empty, limp mode kicks in.
The old car's filler is where the hand goes — yet a rental car, a new motor or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That is the second factor: a new car.
A spout-topped bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, once started, carries on. Rood End or the middle of Londonderry: it is the same few seconds either way.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Whether a Londonderry forecourt or a drive over in Smethwick, take a few seconds on these before any goes in.
- Position misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually don't.
- On many vehicles, the size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Lift the filler flap and look for a label — many motors mark what belongs in which inlet right there.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler sits if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Smethwick Rolfe Street? Check with whoever drove the car last before leaving, not once the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in West Midlands that is.
- Stop somewhere level, motor off, with time to spare — never hurried on the side of Londonderry Lane.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- Leave the 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, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, then check once more — confirm your diesel filler remained closed the whole time. After that, start the vehicle.
Spot at stage two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? Then stop just there. Do not go on to stage five.
Londonderry: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
The short order of things, starting with not starting the motor. Keep the ignition off too, because on plenty of diesels switching it on alone starts the fuel pump. Thinning it with extra diesel fails, since AdBlue settles to the bottom instead of blending — and that is where your fuel is drawn from.
The attendants at Esso, Texaco or any forecourt will usually lend a hand pushing your car away if you ask. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway around Londonderry.
When the engine has been run by now, stop somewhere safe and turn it off. Come off the M5 — under 3 miles out of Londonderry — at the first exit. Mileage matters — a short hop across Londonderry makes a smaller job than heading under 5 miles to Birmingham — so say roughly how far it went.
What takes place when our engineers get there in Londonderry
The van comes to the vehicle anywhere it stopped — your own drive, beside Sandwell Aquatics Centre, or by Devonshire Junior Academy. What fluid was put in, the amount, and if it ran: we ask because the replies set the work and quote. You hear that price on the phone, before anyone heads out.
After that: draining, then a thorough flush of the entire system. 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 the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. Testing comes at the end: before that, clean diesel goes in, and your filter is cleaned or changed as needed. Then our engineers start the engine and check it runs properly before leaving.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour once our engineers get there, as long as your motor has not run — and the pumps our engineers use are fine on a busy forecourt yet quiet after dark beside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is part of many insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Londonderry itself
Londonderry is a suburban area in the West Midlands, situated near the River Rea and close to the city of Birmingham. Londonderry sits at an elevation of 183 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation in the area. Londonderry is located near other suburban areas such as Rood End and Hilltop, and is approximately 3.6 miles from Birmingham city centre. Londonderry has a population of around 9074 people, according to recent estimates.
Londonderry and West Midlands: AdBlue drains across the area
Londonderry is a residential suburb, and the vans that cover it also work the towns around it, Hilltop and West Smethwick among them, across the B postcode area. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting B67 6.
There's no need to move the car. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near Sandwell Aquatics Centre & Park, a lay-by on the way to Smethwick Hall Park, a driveway. Tricky to explain, like the back of St Marks Church? By a county line? Asking beats guessing, so ring.
Londonderry drivers: the short version
Read the cap before you tip. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere around West Midlands, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway — so leave the car off and ring 0333 366 0103.