How It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Meaford
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case set this page aside a moment, keep the ignition and engine off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before your motor runs, it is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Meaford. Nothing happened yet? Below, the rest of the page covers the reasons it occurs and the how to avoid it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Diesel feeds the engine — yet many newer diesels seen about Meaford and Oultoncross hold a second liquid too. Your exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the gas to fresh them, from its own tank.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Some cars put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others have the two side by side behind one flap. At the petrol pump, your diesel side gets filled constantly. Seldom filled, AdBlue normally goes in from a bottle, poured by a driver who has to stop and think which filler to use. The mistake grows in the gap between the two.
Meaford: how AdBlue in the diesel tank happens
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
Haste comes from the warning. Your car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a drive off Newcastle Road, or heading home in the car park outside George & Dragon.
Then, your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old car — because a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
A spout-topped bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, after begun, keeps on. Whether it happens in Burybank or the middle of Meaford, it is the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Look at these first, on a forecourt in Meaford or a drive out in Stone. A few seconds, no more.
- Check the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually aren't.
- Many cars give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler sits if it is not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- 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 Stone.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
When the light goes on, wherever around Staffordshire, use this routine.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Meaford Road.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap works — after you have located the filler and read the cap.
- Both behind one flap? Then confirm the cap on your diesel filler is still closed before lifting the bottle.
- Stop once that tank fills or the bottle is empty; before that, tip gently through its built-in spout.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check once more, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Do not go on to step five.
Meaford: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your engine. Do not switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is sucked from.
The staff at BP, Morrisons or another forecourt will normally help to push your car clear when you ask. Your own drive around Meaford is where it stays.
Where the engine has run by now, pull over safely then turn the vehicle off. Leave the M6 — under 3 miles out of Meaford — at the first exit. About how far did it go? Hopping across Meaford is less work than a run of under 10 miles to Stoke-on-Trent, and so tell us.
Our arrival around Meaford, and what takes place next
Wherever the vehicle came to rest, be it by Christ Church CofE First School, near Bury Bank Hillfort or at home, the van travels to it. Which fluid was put in, the amount, and if it ran: we ask since the answers set the work and quote. You hear that price on the phone, before anyone heads out.
Next: draining, then a thorough flush of the whole system. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. Testing comes last: before that, fresh diesel is added, and the fuel filter is flushed or replaced if necessary. We don't go until it has been fired up and is running correctly.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour after our engineers get there, provided your engine has not run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet at night beside a house. Nothing upfront; you settle up that day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. It's worth checking your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Meaford
Meaford is a small village in Staffordshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 93 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Meaford lies near several other small communities, including Burybank, Stonefield, and Oulton Grange, and is approximately 7.3 miles from Stoke-on-Trent. Meaford has a population of around 568 people, making it a quiet and relatively small residential area. Meaford is also located at a distance of 130.2 miles from London, in the West Midlands region.
AdBlue drains across Staffordshire, Meaford included
Meaford is a village, and our vans that cover it also work the towns near it, Stonefield and Oulton Grange among them, across the ST postcode area. A postcode starting ST15 0 gets our van to you fastest.
Your car stays where it is. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Trent Wood, a side street near The Crossing Community Centre: our technicians drain it where it sits. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you are near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Stone Lawn Tennis and Squash Club.
For Meaford drivers, the short version
Always, the cap; after that, the tip. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Leave the car switched off then phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, across Staffordshire.