Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Muxton: Why It Happens
Stop reading a minute if your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Around Muxton, finding it before the engine turns normally leaves draining and a full flush where it stands. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Many modern diesels in Lilleshall, like those in Muxton, run on two fluids; your motor takes just the diesel. The exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the fumes to clean it, from its own tank.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the layout on many motors. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. The diesel side is fuelled at the petrol pump all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less frequently, usually from a bottle, and normally by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the error lives.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place around Muxton
Carelessness seldom explains it. What does is three things coming up together.
On a driveway off Ormsdale Close before work, or in the car park outside Donnington Sports & Social Club on the way home: that's where the rushed top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low the car warns you, and if it's gone, limp mode follows.
Then your car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand gets to for the cap it would have 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, so nothing stops the pour once it has started. Donnington Wood or the middle of Muxton: it is the same few seconds in both.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Whether a Muxton forecourt or a driveway out in The Incline, take a few seconds on these before anything is poured in.
- Check the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually are not.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of cars say there which fuel goes where.
- Cannot see it beside your diesel filler? Then check below the bonnet or inside the boot — the handbook will say which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Oakengates? Check with the person who drove the vehicle last before you set off, not once the light goes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
For the day the light comes on — anywhere it is across Shropshire — a simple routine to use.
- Pull in somewhere level, engine off, with time to spare — not rushing on the side of Lhen Close.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, yes, but it does the trick.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the car, close the cap and check again that the diesel cap never opened off.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Don't go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Muxton?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with no starting the engine. Do not switch your 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 the tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
On a forecourt — Shell, Asda or any other — the staff will normally help push the vehicle away, if you ask. On your own drive around Muxton? So your car stays where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the engine has already run. On the M54, under 3 miles from Muxton, that means the next junction. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Muxton is smaller work than a trip of under 25 miles towards Wolverhampton, so tell us.
Muxton: what happens when our engineers turn up
Our technicians come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Muxton Primary School, close to St John's Church or on your own drive. What liquid was put in, the quantity, and if it ran: we ask because the replies set both work and quote. The price is given on the call, before any van leaves.
The system is then cleaned thoroughly, after that tank is drained. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more here than with petrol. The filter flushed or, where it must be, swapped; clean diesel in; then a test of the car. Then our technicians fire it up and check it runs correctly before we go.
Unstarted cars mostly mean a half-hour visit after the moment we arrive. The kit is fine on a busy filling station, and quiet enough for a residential street late at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Muxton, for a moment
Muxton is a suburban area in Shropshire, situated inland at an elevation of 83 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Muxton lies approximately 15 miles from Wolverhampton and 128 miles from London, placing it in the wider West Midlands region. Muxton is surrounded by nearby places such as Donnington Wood, Honnington, and Donnington, and has a population of around 4607 residents. Muxton forms a quiet residential community with a mix of local amenities and rural surroundings.
AdBlue drains across Shropshire, Muxton included
Over TF postcodes, the teams covering Muxton — a residential suburb — work the nearby spots too, Donnington and Honnington among them. Quote a postcode beginning TF2 8, and the van arrives quickest.
Shifting the car isn't needed. Anywhere it sits — beside Serbian Orthodox Church of St Nicholas, in a layby heading to Sulphur Piece Plantation, on a drive — that's where it is drained. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Old Mine Building Ruins, ring and ask rather than guessing.
The short version for Muxton drivers
Always, the cap; after that, the tip. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere across Shropshire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway — so leave the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103.