Why It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Norton Canes
Leave your motor and ignition off and call 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. A drain plus a full flush, carried out right where your car sits in Norton Canes, is normally what it needs if caught before the motor runs. Reading in advance? Then the rest covers why it comes about and what to prevent it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Not one liquid but two: that's what many modern diesels around Norton Canes and Highfields carry, with diesel for the engine. Your exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the fumes to clean it, from its own tank.
There is a filler on every tank. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the layout on a lot of cars. On others, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. Much less regularly, the AdBlue side gets topped up — normally from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. That gap is where the error lives.
Norton Canes: how AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs
It is hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Haste follows from the warning. The car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a driveway off Victoria Court, or heading home in the car park at Lido Working Mens Club.
Then the car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spouted bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, after started, keeps on. It takes a few seconds, whether out in Norton East or bang in the centre of Norton Canes.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
A few seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a drive in Chasetown or a forecourt in Norton Canes.
- Read the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue caps are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually are not.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- Lift the flap and look for a label — many motors mark what goes in which inlet right there.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by your diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Landywood.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
Wherever in Staffordshire the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Park Avenue, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park then switch off first.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, yes, but it does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where the two sit under a flap, make sure it is shut before lifting the bottle.
- Stop once that tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; before that, tip gently through its own spout.
- Before starting the vehicle, shut the cap and check again that your diesel cap never opened off.
Find at the second or third step that AdBlue went in the diesel tank? That is where you stop. Don't go on to stage five.
Norton Canes: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Short list, then. First: the engine remains off. The fuel pump starts on many diesels the moment your ignition is switched on — so keep it off. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is drawn from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
The staff at BP, Esso or another forecourt will usually help pushing the car away if asked. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive in Norton Canes.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. The next junction means where to come off if you're on the M6 Toll, under a mile from Norton Canes. A short hop across Norton Canes is a smaller job than a run towards Lichfield, under 10 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
What happens when our engineers arrive around Norton Canes
By Norton Canes Primary Academy, near Norton Canes Community Centre or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our engineers come to it. The replies settle the work and the quote, so our technicians ask what went in, roughly how much, and if it's run. You hear that quote on the phone, before anyone sets off.
Then the tank is emptied and the fuel system flushed thoroughly. 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 matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. After the fuel filter is cleaned — or replaced, if needed — fresh diesel goes in, and finally the car is tested. Before we go, our technicians fire it up and check that it is running properly.
Unrun vehicles mostly need a half-hour job after arrival. The kit is fine on a busy forecourt, and quiet enough for a driveway late at night. No money in advance; you settle up that day. At the end, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. It's worth checking your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Norton Canes, for a moment
Norton Canes is a village in Staffordshire, situated on the lakeside at an elevation of around 150 metres, with a mix of semi-detached housing and other residential properties. Norton Canes lies near the city of Lichfield, approximately 5.8 miles away, and is also close to other nearby places such as Norton East and Brownhills West. Norton Canes has a population of around 3249 people, making it a small but established community in the West Midlands region. Norton Canes is located about 112 miles northwest of London, putting it within commuting distance of the capital.
Norton Canes and Staffordshire: AdBlue drains across the area
As a village, Norton Canes has the same vans as surrounding places — Common Side, Brownhills West — right across WS postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. Quote a postcode beginning WS11 9, and our van gets there fastest.
There's no need to shift the vehicle. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to The Mount, a side street near Trinity Methodist Church: our engineers drain the vehicle where it stands. Assuming doesn't help behind Norton Canes Library, close to a border, or somewhere awkward to describe; ring and ask.
For Norton Canes people, the short version
First, the cap; after that, the pour. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it where it is, wherever in Staffordshire: keep the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103.