Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Lower Eastern Green
Stop reading a minute if your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Lower Eastern Green. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Many modern diesels in Tile Hill, like those in Lower Eastern Green, run on two fluids; your motor gets only the diesel. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, and there spraying cleans the fumes.
Different tanks, different fillers. Some cars put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot more place the two side by side behind one flap. Topping up your diesel side at the pump goes on all the time. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less often. The mistake grows in the gap between them.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs in Lower Eastern Green
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a drive off Ufton Croft before work, or in the car park outside The Vale on the way home: that's where the rushed top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it's empty, limp mode kicks in.
Then the car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new motor 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.
A spouted bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, once started, carries on. Lime Tree Park or the middle of Lower Eastern Green: it is the same few seconds either way.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Upper Eastern Green or a forecourt around Lower Eastern Green, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows where it is when your filler isn't next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Whoever had it before will know. Check when you pick up a rental or fleet car — from Canley's car park, say — not once the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in West Midlands that is.
- Switch off once parked — level ground, motor stopped, and not in a rush by Beausale Croft on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- The two behind a single flap? So make sure the lid on the diesel side is still closed ahead of raising the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Before starting your car, close the cap and check a second time that your diesel cap was never came off.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Leave out step five altogether.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Lower Eastern Green?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the engine. 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 drops to the base of that tank, right where fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — Gulf, Sainsbury's or any other — the staff will normally help push your car clear, when you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive in Lower Eastern Green.
Already started? Pull over once it is sensible, then switch off. On the M6, under 5 miles from Lower Eastern Green, that means the next exit. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Coventry, under 3 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Lower Eastern Green.
When our technicians arrive around Lower Eastern Green, what happens?
Anywhere the car came to rest, whether by Mount Nod Primary School, beside St John Vianney or on your own drive, our van travels to it. Both the work and our price rest on three replies — which liquid, what amount, and whether it's run — so our engineers ask. No one sets off until you've had the price by phone.
Draining your tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of your system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more here than with petrol. After the fuel filter has been flushed — or renewed, if required — clean diesel is added, and then your vehicle is tested. We don't go until it has been fired up and is running properly.
If your engine hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. The insurer will ask for the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Lower Eastern Green, for a moment
Lower Eastern Green is a suburban area located on the outskirts of Coventry, near the River Sherbourne, with a mix of semi-detached housing and local amenities. Lower Eastern Green sits at an elevation of around 105 metres, close to nearby places such as Lime Tree Park and Allesley Green. Lower Eastern Green is situated approximately 2.7 miles from Coventry city centre, making it a popular residential area for those working in the city. Lower Eastern Green has a population of around 6983 people, according to recent estimates.
AdBlue drains round Lower Eastern Green, and West Midlands beyond
As a residential suburb, Lower Eastern Green shares its vans nearby areas — Allesley Green, Whoberley — right across CV postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. Quickest of all: give a CV5 7 postcode to our van.
The car stays where it is. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Allesley Park Community Centre, a side street near St Christopher's Church: we drain the car where it is. Assuming doesn't help at the back of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, on a border, or anywhere hard to pin down; phone and check.
The short version for Lower Eastern Green people
First, the cap; then, the pour. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless, leave it off and call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it sits, anywhere across West Midlands.