AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Pedmore: Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then put this page down for now, keep the ignition and engine off, and call 0333 366 0103. Around Pedmore, catching it before your engine turns normally leaves a drain and a thorough flush where it stands. Reading in advance? Then what follows covers why it comes about and what to stop it happening at all.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Plenty of modern diesels on the roads about Pedmore and West Hagley carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust stream and cleans it.
There is a filler for each tank. Plenty of vehicles have a single flap for the two, whereas others move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, the diesel side is topped up constantly. Seldom topped up, AdBlue normally goes in from a bottle, poured by a driver who must stop and think what cap it needs. That gap is where the error lives.
Pedmore: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
Carelessness rarely causes it. Instead is three things lining up together.
Hurry follows from the warning. The car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a driveway off St Peter's Road, or heading home in the car park outside The Foley Arms.
Next, your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old car — since a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
A spouted bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, after begun, carries on. It takes seconds, be it in Old Swinford or bang in the centre of Pedmore.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Look at these before pouring, on a forecourt around Pedmore or a driveway over in Stourbridge. Seconds, that's all.
- Read the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually are not.
- Many cars give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Open the filler flap and look for a label — plenty of motors mark what goes in which filler right there.
- Cannot see it next to your diesel filler? Then look below the bonnet or inside your boot — the owner's manual will say where.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at Stourbridge Junction, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
Wherever in West Midlands the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Turn off once parked — level ground, motor off, and not in a rush beside Pedmore Lane at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" out loud as unscrewing it. It seems daft. It does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the vehicle on.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, and look once more — making sure the diesel cap remained closed throughout. Only then, start the car.
Discover during the second or third stage that AdBlue went into the wrong tank? That's where you stop. Leave out step five entirely.
Pedmore: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Short list, then. First: the engine remains unstarted. Keep your ignition off as well, since on many diesels it by itself runs your pump. Thinning it with more diesel won't work, because AdBlue sinks to the bottom rather than mixing — and that is where your fuel is pulled from.
Ask the attendants to help roll the car away from the pump if you're at a forecourt — the JET, the BP or anywhere else. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway in Pedmore.
Already run? Stop once it is safe, then turn off. On the M5, under 5 miles from Pedmore, that means the next junction. Distance counts — a short hop across Pedmore is a smaller job than heading under 15 miles towards Birmingham — so say about how far it went.
When our engineers turn up in Pedmore, what takes place?
The van comes to the vehicle wherever it stopped — your own drive, beside St. Peter's Centre, or by Pedmore CE Primary School. Both the work and the price rest on three answers — which liquid, which amount, and if it's run — so we ask. The price is given on the call, before any van leaves.
The system is then flushed thoroughly, after the tank is cleared. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and neither clears out by itself. That is why it counts more. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Before we leave, our technicians fire it up and make sure that it's running smoothly.
Unstarted cars mostly mean a half-hour visit after arrival. The equipment is fine on a live filling station, and quiet enough for a residential street after dark. The insurer usually wants the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both once the job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Pedmore
Pedmore is a suburban area in the West Midlands, situated near the River Stour and close to the cities of Birmingham and Wolverhampton. Pedmore has a mix of housing types, but is predominantly characterised by detached homes, and is located about 10 miles southwest of Birmingham city centre. Pedmore sits at an elevation of around 120 metres, and is part of the larger West Midlands conurbation. Pedmore is also near several other suburban areas, including Old Swinford, Wollescote, and Hagley.
AdBlue drains round Pedmore, and West Midlands beyond
Wollescote and Hagley are among the places near Pedmore, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, over DY postcodes. A postcode starting DY9 0 gets our van to you fastest.
The vehicle remains put. Anywhere it sits — beside St Peter's, on a lay-by en route to Pedmore Cricket Club, at home — that is where it gets drained. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Pedmore Hall? By a county line? Asking beats guessing, so phone.
The short version for Pedmore people
Read the cap before you tip. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Leave the car off then phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, throughout West Midlands.