Pershall: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and the ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, carried out right where the vehicle sits in Pershall, is usually what it needs when caught before your engine runs. Not happened yet? Below, the page covers the why it takes place and the how to prevent it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel feeds your engine — yet many newer diesels driven about Pershall and Offleyhay carry a second liquid too. The exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the gas to clean them, from its own tank.
There is a filler on every tank. Some vehicles keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty more have the two side by side under one flap. Diesel goes in on every forecourt call-out, again and again. Rarely filled, AdBlue normally comes from a bottle, tipped by a driver who has to stop and think what filler to use. The slip lives in that gap.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Pershall: how it takes place
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
Haste follows from the warning. The car warns 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 Eccleshall Road, or heading home in the car park at The Star Inn.
New-to-you cars are next, as well. Rentals, new vehicles and company motors place their fillers differently, and the hand goes for the cap it used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the pour once it has started. Copmere End or the heart of Pershall: it takes the same few seconds either way.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Look at these first, on a forecourt in Pershall or a drive out in Eccleshall. Seconds, that's all.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Trust the cap, not its position.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on many motors. Check for it.
- Can't find it beside your diesel inlet? In that case check below the bonnet or inside your boot — the owner's manual will say which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park at Norton Bridge? Ask whoever drove the vehicle last before you set off, not once the light goes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
Wherever around Staffordshire the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Switch off once parked — level ground, motor stopped, and not in a rush beside Smithy Lane at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" aloud as unscrewing it. It sounds silly. It works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Stop once your tank fills or the bottle runs dry; before that, tip gently using the built-in spout.
- Shut the cap, and check again — making sure the diesel cap stayed closed throughout. Only then, start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Stage five is out.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Pershall?
Don't start your motor: that is where the short order of things starts. Don't switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Topping up with diesel will not dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the base of the tank, just where fuel is taken from.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it is the the nearest petrol station or the Croxton Service Station, ask the staff to help push the car clear of the petrol pump. If you are on your own drive around Pershall, leave it where it stands.
Already started? Pull over once it's safe, then turn off. Leave the M6 — under 5 miles out of Pershall — at the next junction. Distance matters — a quick hop across Pershall makes a smaller job than driving under 15 miles to Stoke-on-Trent — so say about how far it went.
What occurs when we get there around Pershall
Our van reaches the vehicle wherever it stopped — your own driveway, near Copmere Pump Site, or outside Bishop Lonsdale Church of England Primary Academy. The answers settle the work and our price, and so our engineers ask what was put in, about how much, and whether it has run. No one sets off until you have heard the quote by phone.
The fuel system is then purged thoroughly, once your tank is cleared. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own. A test comes at the end: before that, clean diesel goes in, and your filter is cleaned or changed as needed. Before we leave, we fire it up and check that it's running smoothly.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour once our technicians arrive, provided your engine has not run — and the pumps our engineers use are safe on a busy forecourt yet quiet at night outside a house. No money in advance; you settle up on the day. At the end, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. Misfuelling cover is included in many insurance policies — and so use the wait to check yours.
About Pershall and where it is
Pershall is a small hamlet situated on the riverside in Staffordshire, with a population of around 576 residents. Pershall sits at an elevation of 92 metres, near the villages of Copmere End and Elford Heath, and is located approximately 11.6 miles from Stoke-on-Trent. Pershall is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its rural setting. Pershall remains a quiet residential community, some 130.8 miles northwest of London.
Pershall and Staffordshire: AdBlue drains across the area
As a rural hamlet, Pershall has the same vans as surrounding places — Elford Heath, Cats Hill Cross — all the way across ST postcodes and the wider area around them. A postcode starting ST21 6 gets the van to you fastest.
Moving the vehicle is not necessary. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Elford Heath, a side street close to Eccleshall Castle: our technicians drain it where it sits. Assuming doesn't help at the back of Offley Hay Village Hall, close to a boundary, or anywhere hard to pin down; phone and check.
Pershall people: the short version
Pour nothing until you've read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Leave the car switched off then phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, across Staffordshire.