Moor Hall: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case set this page down a moment, keep your ignition and motor off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Normally, if the motor hasn't turned, it's emptied and fully purged where your car is around Moor Hall. The rest of this page explains why it occurs and how to ensure it does not — useful if you're reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Many newer diesels on the roads around Moor Hall and Mere Green carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, and there a spray treats the gas.
Each tank comes with a filler of its own. Other cars keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty more have the two together behind one flap. The diesel side is topped up at the pump all the time. Rarely topped up, AdBlue usually goes in out of a bottle, tipped by a driver who has to stop and think what cap to use. Mistakes happen in that gap between the two.
Moor Hall: how AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs
Carelessness seldom explains it. What does is three things coming up at once.
On a drive off Ley Hill Road before work, or in the car park at The Green House on the way home: that's where the hurried top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low your car warns you, and once it is empty, limp mode follows.
Next, the hand goes for the cap it knew on the old vehicle — because a hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't.
No part stops the tip after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It takes seconds, be it in Doe Bank or right in the centre of Moor Hall.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Look at these first, on a forecourt in Moor Hall or a driveway out in Ladywood. Seconds, no more.
- Position misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue caps are often blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually do not.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many motors say there which fuel goes where.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler is if it's not by your 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 Four Oaks.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
For the day the warning comes on — wherever it is in West Midlands — a routine to follow.
- Switch off once parked — flat ground, engine off, and not in a rush beside Little Sutton Lane on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew it. It seems silly. It works.
- The two under one flap? So confirm the lid on your diesel filler stays shut before lifting the bottle.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the vehicle, shut the cap and check a second time that your diesel cap was never opened off.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Skip stage five altogether.
Moor Hall: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your engine. Do not switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Diluting it with extra diesel won't work, because AdBlue settles to the bottom instead of mixing — and that is where your fuel is sucked from.
The staff at Shell, Esso or another forecourt will normally lend a hand to push your car away if you ask. On your own drive around Moor Hall? So your car remains put.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your engine has already run. The next exit means the place to come off when you're on the M6 Toll, under 3 miles from Moor Hall. Mileage matters — a short hop across Moor Hall is a smaller job than driving under 10 miles to Lichfield — so say about how far it went.
When we turn up around Moor Hall, what takes place?
Our technicians come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Coppice Primary School, near Four Oaks Methodist Church or on your own drive. What fluid got in, the quantity, and if it ran: our engineers ask because the replies decide both work and quote. That price is given on the call, before any van leaves.
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, and so it doesn't wash out on its own. Testing comes at the end: before that, clean diesel is added, and the filter is cleaned or changed if necessary. Before we leave, our engineers start the engine and confirm that it is running correctly.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour after our technicians 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 outside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. While we travel, have a look at your insurance documents; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Moor Hall
Moor Hall is a suburban area in the West Midlands, situated approximately 7 miles from Lichfield and 103 miles northwest of London. Moor Hall occupies a gentle inland slope at an elevation of around 141 metres, with nearby settlements including Doe Bank and Ley Hill. Moor Hall is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its development as a residential area. Moor Hall is also close to Four Oaks Park, a nearby recreational space.
Moor Hall and West Midlands: AdBlue drains across the area
Moor Hall is a residential suburb, and the vans that cover it also work the towns near it, Ley Hill and Four Oaks Park among them, across the B postcode area. Quote a postcode beginning B75 6, and our van arrives fastest.
There's no need to shift the car. The drain takes place right there, be it a driveway, a street by Francis Brett Young 1884-1954, or a lay-by towards Moor Hall Golf Course. Awkward to explain, like the back of Holy Trinity Catholic Church? Close to a county line? Checking beats assuming, so ring.
Moor Hall drivers: the short version
Read the cap before you tip. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere across West Midlands, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same — and so leave it off then ring 0333 366 0103.