Lyndon Green: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Stop here a minute when your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and ring 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, carried out just where your car sits in Lyndon Green, is normally what it needs if caught before the engine runs. The remainder of this page explains why it takes place and how to make sure it does not — useful if you're reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
No single fluid but two: that's how plenty of modern diesels near Lyndon Green and Garretts Green carry, with diesel feeding your motor. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, where spraying cleans the gas.
Each tank has its own filler. Some cars keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others place the two side by side behind one flap. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less regularly, usually from a bottle, and normally by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. The error lives in that gap.
Lyndon Green: how AdBlue in the diesel tank happens
Carelessness rarely explains it. What does is three things coming up at once.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from the car, and running dry means limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Wensley Road, or at St Bernards Grange on the way home after work.
Next, the hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old motor — because a rental car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't.
A spouted bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, once started, carries on. Gilbertstone or the heart of Lyndon Green: it takes the same few seconds either way.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Check these first, at a forecourt in Lyndon Green or a driveway out in Yardley. Seconds, that's all.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Go by the cap, not its position.
- Plenty of vehicles give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Look inside the fuel flap: many motors carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says which it is if the filler isn't next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- 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 at Lea Hall.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across West Midlands that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Barrows Lane, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park then switch off first.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, perhaps, yet it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start the vehicle: close the cap, check again, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Find at step two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? So stop just there. Step five stays off limits.
Lyndon Green: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Brief order, then. Top of that: the motor remains off. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch the car on. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is pulled from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it's the BP or the Texaco, ask the staff to help push your car clear of the petrol pump. Your own drive in Lyndon Green is where it stays.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your motor has already run. Lyndon Green lies under 5 miles from the M6; there, use the first exit. Mileage matters — a short hop across Lyndon Green makes a smaller job than heading under 5 miles to Birmingham — so tell us roughly how far it went.
When our technicians get there in Lyndon Green, what occurs?
Our technicians come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Lyndon Green Infant School, close to Digbeth in the Field or on your own drive. Those answers settle this work and the quote, so our engineers ask what was put in, about how much, and if it has run. You get that price by phone, before anybody sets off.
Draining your tank comes next, followed by a full flush of the fuel 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 that matters more here than with petrol. After the fuel filter is flushed — or renewed, if required — fresh diesel goes in, and then your vehicle is tested. The motor is fired up next and checked to make sure it runs correctly, all before our engineers go.
With pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your engine hasn't run take roughly half an hour once our technicians are there. Your insurer will ask for the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Lyndon Green, briefly
Lyndon Green is a suburban area in the West Midlands, situated near the River Rea and close to the city of Birmingham. Lyndon Green has a mix of semi-detached housing and local amenities, with nearby places including Gilbertstone, Garrets Green, and Sheldon. Lyndon Green is located at an elevation of 112 metres, approximately 4.8 miles from Birmingham city centre. Lyndon Green is also within commuting distance of London, which is around 96.8 miles away.
Lyndon Green and West Midlands: AdBlue drains across the area
Lyndon Green is a residential suburb, and our vans that cover it also work the places around it, Garrets Green and Sheldon among them, across the B postcode area. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting B26 1.
The vehicle stays put. Anywhere it sits — near Sheldon Gospel Hall, in a lay-by heading to Willclare Sports Society Ltd, at home — that's where it gets cleared. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you're near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Sheldon Library.
In short, for Lyndon Green people
First, the cap; after that, the pour. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Leave the car switched off then call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, throughout West Midlands.