How It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Merry Hill
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and the ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, done right where your vehicle sits in Merry Hill, is normally all it takes if found before your motor runs. The rest of this page explains why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't — useful if you are reading before it has happened.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Plenty of newer diesels in Bradmore, like those in Merry Hill, run on two liquids; the engine takes only the diesel. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, where spraying cleans the gas.
There's a filler on every tank. Some vehicles keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty more place both side by side behind one flap. At the pump, your diesel side is topped up all the time. Far less frequently, the AdBlue side gets filled — normally from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. That gap is where the mistake lives.
Merry Hill: how AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
On a drive off Wychbury Road before work, or in the car park outside The Merry Hill on the way home: that's where the hurried top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low your car warns you, and once it's gone, limp mode follows.
The old car's cap is where the hand reaches — but a rental car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That's the second factor: a new car.
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 Merry Hill or out in Finchfield.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Penn or a forecourt around Merry Hill, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Position can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue ones are often blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually do not.
- On plenty of cars, the size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Look inside your fuel flap: plenty of cars carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by your diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Wolverhampton? Check with the person who drove the car last before leaving, not once the light goes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
Wherever around West Midlands the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Fareham Crescent.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap works — after you've found your filler and read the cap.
- The two under one flap? So make sure the cap on your diesel filler is still closed before raising the bottle.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Shut the cap, then check once more — confirm the diesel filler stayed shut the whole time. Only then, start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Leave out stage five altogether.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Merry Hill already?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with not starting the engine. Keep your ignition off as well, because on plenty of diesels it by itself runs your fuel pump. Filling up with diesel won't dilute it: instead, AdBlue drops to the base of the tank, just where fuel is drawn from.
Ask the attendants to help roll the vehicle away from the petrol pump if you're on a forecourt — the Esso, the Shell or anywhere else. If you're on your own drive around Merry Hill, leave the vehicle where it stands.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the motor has already run. Merry Hill lies under 5 miles from the M54; on it, use the next exit. Distance matters — a short hop across Merry Hill is a smaller job than heading under 3 miles to Wolverhampton — so tell us roughly how far it went.
Our arrival around Merry Hill, and what takes place next
Anywhere the vehicle came to rest, whether outside St Michael's Catholic Primary Academy and Nursery, beside St Joseph or at home, the van comes to it. Both the work and the quote rest on three replies — what liquid, which amount, and if it's run — so our engineers ask. On the call itself, you are told the quote — ahead of anything else.
Draining your tank comes next, followed by a full flush of the system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. After the filter is cleaned — or renewed, if required — clean diesel is added, and then your car gets tested. Before we leave, we start the car and make sure that it's running smoothly.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour after our engineers get there, as long as the engine has not run — and the pumps our engineers use are safe on a live forecourt and quiet after dark beside a house. The insurer will ask for an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours once this job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Merry Hill, briefly
Merry Hill is a suburban area in the West Midlands, situated on the riverside near Wolverhampton. Merry Hill has a population of around 7601 people and is characterised by semi-detached housing. Merry Hill sits at an elevation of 129 metres, close to nearby places such as Finchfield and Castlecroft. Merry Hill is located approximately 2.1 miles from Wolverhampton city centre.
AdBlue drains across West Midlands, Merry Hill included
Throughout WV postcodes, the vans covering Merry Hill — a residential suburb — work the nearby spots too, Castlecroft and Oxbarn included. Quickest of all: give a WV3 8 postcode for the van.
There's no need to move the vehicle. Anywhere it stands — near Blue Plaque: Major K Hutchinson Smith, in a layby heading to Black Country Millennium Forest, at home — that's where it gets cleared. Tricky to explain, like the back of Warstones Library? By a border? Checking beats guessing, so phone.
In short, for Merry Hill people
Before you pour, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere around West Midlands, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same — and so leave the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103.