Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Overdale: Why It Occurs
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case put this page down for now, leave your ignition and engine off, and phone 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, carried out just where the vehicle stands around Overdale, is normally what it needs if found before your engine runs. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it does not.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
No single fluid but two: that is how plenty of modern diesels near Overdale and The Rock carry, with diesel for your motor. Your exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the gas to clean them, from its own tank.
Separate tanks, different fillers. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in at each filling station call-out, week in, week out. The AdBlue side is filled far less frequently, usually from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. It's in the gap that the error happens.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place in Overdale
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
Hurry comes from the warning. The car warns 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 drive off Hartley Close, or heading home in the car park at Lord Hill Inn.
Then, the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old car — since a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not.
A spout-topped bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, after begun, carries on. Newdale or the middle of Overdale: it is the same few seconds in both.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Look at these before pouring, at a forecourt in Overdale or a driveway out in Ketley Bank. Seconds, no more.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Go by the cap, not its position.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Open the flap and check for a label — plenty of vehicles mark which belongs in each filler right there.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by your diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Oakengates, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
On the day the warning comes on — anywhere you are around Shropshire — a routine to use.
- Switch off once parked — flat ground, motor stopped, and not in a rush beside Garfield Road on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" out loud as unscrewing it. It seems daft. It does the trick.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the 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 you start the car, close the cap and check a second time that your diesel cap never came off.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Skip stage five entirely.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Overdale?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with not starting your motor. The fuel pump starts on many diesels as soon as your ignition goes on — so leave it off. Topping up with diesel will not dilute it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the base of that tank, right where fuel is taken from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it is the Esso or the Sainsbury's, ask the attendants to help roll your car clear of the pump. If you are on your own drive in Overdale, leave it where it sits.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. The next exit is where to come off if you're on the M54, under a mile from Overdale. Mileage counts — a quick hop across Overdale is a smaller job than heading under 25 miles towards Wolverhampton — so say roughly how far it went.
Our arrival in Overdale, and what takes place next
Our technicians come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Newdale Primary School & Nursery, near St Mary the Virgin or on your own drive. What liquid went in, the amount, and whether it ran: our engineers ask because those replies set both work and price. During the phone call itself, you are told the quote — ahead of anything else.
After that: a drain, then a thorough flush of the entire system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and neither clears out unaided. Hence it counts more. A test is at the end: before that, clean diesel is added, and the fuel filter is cleaned or changed as needed. Before leaving, we start it and check that it is running correctly.
If your engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. No money in advance; you settle up that day. At the end, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. It is worth looking at your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Overdale and where it is
Overdale is a suburban area in Shropshire, situated inland at an elevation of 162 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Overdale is located near several other suburban areas, including Newdale, Old Park, and Red Lake, and is approximately 15.9 miles from Wolverhampton. Overdale has a population of around 3991 residents and is about 128.6 miles from London.
Overdale and Shropshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Being a residential suburb, Overdale shares its vans nearby areas — Old Park, Red Lake — all the way across TF postcodes and the surrounding area around them. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting TF3 5.
The vehicle doesn't need to move. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Newdale park, a side street near Site of Battle of Cinderloo: our technicians drain the car where it sits. Guessing doesn't help behind Holy Trinity, on a border, or somewhere awkward to pin down; phone and check.
For Overdale drivers, the short version
Always, the cap; then, the pour. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it where it stands, wherever in Shropshire: switch the vehicle off then call 0333 366 0103.