Why It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Majors Green
Pause reading a minute if the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. Around Majors Green, catching it before the motor runs usually leaves a drain and a full flush where it stands. Here in advance? Then the rest covers how it happens and what to stop it happening at all.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Many newer diesels on the roads round Majors Green and Haslucks Green carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Plenty of vehicles have a single flap for the two, whereas some put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is fuelled at the petrol pump all the time. Seldom filled, AdBlue usually goes in out of a bottle, poured by someone who must stop and think what cap to use. The mistake grows in that gap between the two.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place in Majors Green
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
On a driveway off Rolan Drive before work, or in the car park outside The Drawbridge heading home: that is where the hurried top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low the vehicle tells you, and if it is gone, limp mode kicks in.
Unfamiliar vehicles come next, as well. Rentals, new cars and company cars place their fillers differently, and habit reaches for the cap it used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the pour once it has started. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Majors Green or out in Truemans Heath.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a drive in Three Maypoles or a forecourt around Majors Green.
- Check the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue ones are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally are not.
- The size. On many cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Check inside your fuel flap: many cars have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- Can't find it next to the diesel filler? In that case check below the bonnet or inside your boot — the handbook says where.
- Whoever had it before will know. Check as you pick up a rental or fleet car — from Whitlocks End's car park, perhaps — not once the warning appears.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
When the light goes on, wherever in Worcestershire, use this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Nursery Gardens, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park and switch off first.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew it. It seems daft. It works.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Find during the second or third step that the bottle went into the wrong tank? That's where you stop. Do not go on to stage five.
Majors Green: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Short order, then. Top of that: the engine remains unstarted. Don't switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel will not dilute it: instead, AdBlue drops to the bottom of your tank, just where the fuel is drawn from.
On a forecourt — BP, JET or any other — the attendants will normally help push the vehicle away, if you ask. At home in Majors Green? Then the car stays put.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your motor has already run. On the M42, under 5 miles from Majors Green, that means the next junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Birmingham, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Majors Green.
Our arrival in Majors Green, and what takes place next
Anywhere your car has stopped, be it by Mill Lodge Primary School, beside Berry Mound Camp Iron Age Fort or on your own drive, the van travels to it. Both the work and the quote rest on three replies — which fluid, what amount, and if it's run — so our technicians ask. Nobody heads out until you have heard our quote by phone.
The fuel system is then flushed thoroughly, once that tank is emptied. Much more than with petrol, it counts here: crystals build up, some metals are attacked, and nothing clears out on its own, no matter how long it sits. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Before we leave, our technicians fire it up and check that it is running smoothly.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour after we arrive, as long as the engine hasn't run — and the pumps our technicians use are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet at night outside a house. The insurer will ask for an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Wrong-fuel cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — so use the wait to look at yours.
About Majors Green itself
Majors Green is a village in Worcestershire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of around 135 metres. Majors Green lies close to the city of Birmingham, approximately 6 miles to the west, and is near other local places such as Truemans Heath and Whitlocks End. Majors Green has a population of around 976 residents, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Majors Green is located about 95 miles northwest of London, in the West Midlands region.
Majors Green and Worcestershire: AdBlue drains across the area
As a village, Majors Green shares its vans nearby places — Solihull Lodge, Whitlocks End — right through B postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. Give a postcode that starts B90 1, and the van gets there fastest.
Shifting the car isn't necessary. Anywhere it stands — near Shirley Community Church, in a lay-by en route to Wake Green AFC, at home — that is where it gets cleared. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of St John the Divine, ring and ask rather than guessing.
Majors Green motorists: the short version
First, the cap; then, the tip. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it where it is, wherever in Worcestershire: keep it off and phone 0333 366 0103.