How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in New Wood
Pause reading for a moment if your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and call 0333 366 0103. A drain and a full flush, done just where your car sits in New Wood, is usually what it needs when caught before your motor runs. The remainder of this page covers why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't — useful if you are reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Diesel feeds your engine — but many current diesels seen round New Wood and Prestwood carry a second fluid as well. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, and there a spray cleans the gas.
Every tank has one filler of its own. Many of motors have a single flap for both, while some move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Topping up your diesel side at the pump happens constantly. Rarely topped up, AdBlue usually goes in out of a bottle, poured by a driver who has to stop and think what cap it needs. It is in that gap that the error lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs around New Wood
Carelessness seldom explains it. Instead is three things coming up together.
Hurry comes from the warning. Your car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a drive off Hyperion Road, or heading home in the car park outside Foresters Arms.
Unfamiliar motors are next, as well. Rentals, new motors and company motors place their fillers differently, and the hand reaches for the cap used on the old one.
No part halts the pour once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it happens in Wollaston or the middle of New Wood, it is the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Lawns Wood or a forecourt around New Wood, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Position misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue caps are often blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally don't.
- Many vehicles fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Lift the flap and check for a label — many motors show which belongs in each inlet right there.
- Cannot find it beside your diesel filler? Then check beneath the bonnet or inside the boot — the handbook will say which.
- The previous driver will know. Check as you pick up a hire car or fleet car — from Stourbridge Town's car park, say — rather than once the warning appears.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
Anywhere around Staffordshire the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Ridge Wood Avenue.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew it. It sounds silly. It does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Finish once your tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; before that, tip gently through its own spout.
- Before you start your car, shut the cap and check again that your diesel cap never came off.
Discover during the second or third stage that the bottle went into the wrong tank? That is where you stop. Never go on to step five.
New Wood: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Short order, then. Top of it: your engine remains off. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch it on. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is drawn from.
Ask the attendants to help push the vehicle away from the petrol pump if you're at a forecourt — the the nearest petrol station, the BP or anywhere else. Your own drive in New Wood is where it should stay.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the engine has already run. The next junction is where to come off when you are on the M5, under 10 miles from New Wood. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Wolverhampton, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across New Wood.
When our technicians arrive in New Wood, what occurs?
The van reaches your car wherever it stopped — your own drive, near Wollaston Evangelical Church, or outside St James's CofE Primary School. We ask what went in, about how much, and if it has run, since those answers settle the work and the quote. You hear that price on the phone, before anyone heads out.
Draining the tank comes next, followed by a full flush of your system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. The filter cleaned or, if needed, swapped; clean diesel in; and then a test of your car. We do not go until it has been started and is running smoothly.
Using pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where the engine has not run need roughly half an hour once our technicians arrive. No money upfront; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About New Wood itself
New Wood is a village in Staffordshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 99 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. New Wood lies near several other villages, including Wollaston, Amblecote, and Wordsley, and is approximately 8.6 miles from Wolverhampton. New Wood has a population of around 1572 residents, who enjoy a relatively quiet location, despite being within commuting distance of larger cities. New Wood is also around 109.3 miles from London, making it a potential base for those who need to travel to the capital,
AdBlue drains around New Wood, and Staffordshire beyond
Being a village, New Wood shares its vans surrounding places — Amblecote, Wordsley — right across DY postcodes and the surrounding area around them. Quote a postcode beginning DY7 6, and the van arrives quickest.
The vehicle stays put. The drain takes place right there, whether a drive, a road by Wollaston Methodist Church, or a layby towards the green space at the edge of the village. Guessing doesn't help behind St James, close to a boundary, or anywhere awkward to describe; ring and check.
New Wood drivers: the short version
Read the cap before you tip. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere around Staffordshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — and so leave the car off and call 0333 366 0103.