Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Mill Green: Why It Happens
Stop here for a moment if the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Usually, when the motor has not turned, it is drained and fully flushed where the car is around Mill Green. Here before the event? In that case the rest covers how it comes about and how to stop it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Not one liquid but two: that's how plenty of modern diesels around Mill Green and Leacroft run, with diesel feeding your motor. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, and there a spray cleans the gas.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, side by side: that is the arrangement on many vehicles. On others, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. The diesel side is fuelled at the pump all the time. Rarely topped up, AdBlue usually comes from a bottle, poured by a driver who must stop and think what filler to use. It is in the gap that the slip happens.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank occur in Mill Green?
It's rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from your car, and letting it run dry leads to limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Warwick Close, or outside The Arcade on the way home that evening.
New-to-you vehicles come second, too. Rentals, new motors and company vehicles put their fillers in new places, and habit reaches for the cap used on the old one.
A spouted bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, after started, keeps on. Whether it happens in Rumer Hill or the middle of Mill Green, it is the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Check these before pouring, at a forecourt around Mill Green or a drive out in Bridgtown. A few seconds, no more.
- Position misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue ones are often blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually do not.
- The size. On plenty of vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Look for it.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler sits if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Cannock? Check with whoever drove the vehicle last before you set off, rather than once the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
For the day the warning appears — anywhere you are in Staffordshire — a simple routine to follow.
- Turn off once parked — level ground, engine off, and never rushed beside Lichfield Road on the verge.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, perhaps, but it does the trick.
- Both behind one flap? Then confirm the lid on the diesel filler stays shut ahead of raising the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before you start your car, shut the cap and check a second time that the diesel cap never came off.
Spot at step two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? Then stop right there. Don't go on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Mill Green already?
Short list, then. Top of it: your motor remains off. The fuel pump starts on many diesels the moment your ignition goes on — so keep it off. Filling up with diesel will not weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the base of that tank, right where the fuel is taken from.
At a forecourt — Asda, Sainsbury's or any other — the staff will usually help push your car away, if you ask. At home in Mill Green? So your car stays put.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your engine has already run. The next junction means where to come off when you're on the M6 Toll, under a mile from Mill Green. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Lichfield, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Mill Green.
Our arrival in Mill Green, and what takes place next
Our engineers come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside St Mary's Catholic Primary School, close to The Salvation Army - Cannock or on your own drive. The replies settle the work and the price, and so our technicians ask what got in, about how much, and whether it has run. Nobody heads out before you have heard the quote over the phone.
The system is then cleaned thoroughly, once the tank is cleared. Much more than with petrol, it matters here: the crystals build up, certain metals corrode, and none of it clears out on its own, no matter how long it is left. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Then our technicians fire it up and check it runs properly before leaving.
If your motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. No money in advance; you settle up that day. At the end, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Mill Green and where it is
Mill Green is a suburban area in Staffordshire, situated on the riverside with a mix of residential and natural environments. Mill Green has a relatively low elevation of 135 metres and is located near several other communities, including Rumer Hill and Hawks Green. Mill Green is also close to the city of Lichfield, which is about 8 miles away, and is part of the larger West Midlands region. Mill Green is predominantly composed of flat housing, which is common in many suburban areas in England.
AdBlue drains around Mill Green and across Staffordshire
Throughout WS postcodes, the vans that cover Mill Green — a residential suburb — work the surrounding locations too, Cannock and Hawks Green included. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting WS11 8.
Your car stays where it is. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street close to Mill Street Methodist Church, a lay-by on the way to Mill Green Nature Park, a drive. Tricky to pin down, like the back of Electric Palace Picture House? By a border? Asking is better than guessing, so phone.
The short version for Mill Green people
Pour no AdBlue till you've read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Leave the car switched off then ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, across Staffordshire.