Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Old Oscott: Why It Occurs
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case put this page aside a moment, leave your ignition and motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. A drain and a full flush, carried out just where the vehicle stands around Old Oscott, is normally what it takes when found before the engine runs. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it does not.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Many modern diesels in Banners Gate, like those in Old Oscott, run on two liquids; the engine takes only the diesel. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust stream to clean it.
Each tank has one filler of its own. Plenty of cars have a single flap for both, whereas others put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Topping up your diesel side at the petrol pump happens all the time. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less regularly. That gap is where the mistake lives.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank occur around Old Oscott?
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
Haste comes from the warning. The car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a driveway off Shady Lane, or heading home in the car park outside The Kingfisher.
Then your car is strange. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Lastly, the spout fits: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in as easily, and after the pour begins, no part halts it. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Old Oscott or out in Queslett.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Perry Beeches or a forecourt around Old Oscott, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally isn't. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- On plenty of motors, the size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside your fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Check for it.
- The handbook says where it lives if the filler isn't next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Hamstead.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
For the day the warning comes on — wherever you are around West Midlands — a simple routine to use.
- Pull in somewhere level, motor off, with time in hand — not hurried on the side of Thorncliffe Road.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you've found your filler and read the cap.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where the two sit under a flap, make sure it is closed before the bottle comes up.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start your car: close the cap, check again, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Find at stage two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? Then stop just there. Don't carry on to stage five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Old Oscott?
The short order of things, beginning with not starting the motor. Keep your ignition off too, since on many diesels switching it on alone starts your fuel pump. Filling up with diesel will not dilute it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of the tank, right where fuel is drawn from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it's the Kingstanding Service Station or the Asda, ask the staff to help roll the vehicle away from the petrol pump. If you are on your own driveway in Old Oscott, leave it where it stands.
Already run? Stop once it's sensible, then turn off. Come off the M6 — under 3 miles out of Old Oscott — at the next exit. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Birmingham, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Old Oscott.
When our technicians turn up around Old Oscott, what takes place?
Outside Maryvale Catholic Primary School, near David Lloyd or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our engineers come to it. What liquid went in, the quantity, and whether it ran: our technicians ask since the answers set the work and price. You hear that price on the phone, before anyone heads out.
Then your tank is emptied and your system purged thoroughly. 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 that counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. The motor is fired up next and tested to be sure it runs smoothly, all before we head off.
If the engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents an insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Before we get there, take a look at your policy; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Old Oscott and where it is
Old Oscott is a suburban area located approximately 5 miles north of Birmingham city centre, at an elevation of around 155 metres. Old Oscott sits within the West Midlands region, near the neighbouring areas of Queslett, Kingstanding, and Pheasey. Old Oscott is characterised by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock, which reflects the typical residential development of the region. Old Oscott is situated inland, about 104 miles northwest of London.
AdBlue drains across West Midlands, Old Oscott included
Old Oscott is a residential suburb, and the vans that cover it also work the places near it, Kingstanding and Pheasey among them, across the B postcode area. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting B44 9.
The vehicle remains put. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Aldridge Road Recreation Ground, a side street near Our Lady Of The Assumption: our engineers drain it where it stands. Tricky to pin down, like the back of Maryvale Community Centre? Close to a county line? Checking beats guessing, so ring.
For Old Oscott people, the short version
Tip no AdBlue till you've read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless, leave the car off and phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it waits, anywhere across West Midlands.