How It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Pheasey
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case set this page down a moment, keep your ignition and motor off, then ring 0333 366 0103. A drain and a full flush, done just where your vehicle stands around Pheasey, is usually what it needs if found before your engine runs. Not happened yet? Further down, the page covers the why it happens and the how to avoid it for good.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Not one liquid but two: that's how plenty of newer diesels near Pheasey and Banners Gate carry, with diesel for the engine. Your exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the gas to clean it, from a separate tank.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Other motors put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others place both together behind one flap. At the petrol pump, the diesel side is topped up constantly. The AdBlue side is topped up far less regularly, normally from a bottle, and usually by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
Pheasey: how AdBlue in the diesel tank happens
It is seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Hurry comes from the warning. Your car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a drive off Collingwood Drive, or on the way home in the car park outside The Old Horns.
Then the car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spouted bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, once started, carries on. Whether it takes place in Queslett or the middle of Pheasey, it's the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Perry Beeches or a forecourt around Pheasey, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally do not.
- On plenty of vehicles, the size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows where it is if your filler isn't next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Hamstead? Check with the person who drove the vehicle last before you set off, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
Wherever around West Midlands the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Hillingford Avenue, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park then switch off properly.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Finish once the tank fills or the bottle runs dry; until then, pour slowly using its own spout.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Find at step two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? Then stop just there. Skip step five altogether.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Pheasey?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with not starting your engine. Don't switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Thinning it with more diesel won't work, since AdBlue settles to the bottom rather than mixing — and that is where your fuel is pulled from.
At a forecourt — Asda, Kingstanding Service Station or another — the attendants will usually help push your car away, when you ask. Your own driveway around Pheasey is where it should stay.
Already started? Pull over when it's safe, then turn off. On the M6, under a mile from Pheasey, that means the next exit. Distance matters — a quick hop across Pheasey is a smaller job than driving under 10 miles to Birmingham — so tell us about how far it went.
What takes place when our technicians turn up around Pheasey
Wherever your car came to rest, be it outside Pheasey Park Farm Primary School and Early Years Centre, beside Pheasey Library or on your own drive, our van travels to it. The replies settle this work and the quote, and so our technicians ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether it's run. On the call itself, you hear our quote — ahead of dispatch.
Next: a drain, then a thorough flush of the whole system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and none of it washes away unaided. Hence it matters more. Filter flushed or, if needed, replaced; clean diesel in; then a check of the car. We don't go until it has been fired up and is running smoothly.
If your motor hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents your insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. While we travel, take a look at your insurance documents; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Pheasey
Pheasey is a village in the West Midlands, situated approximately 5 miles north of Birmingham city centre. Pheasey sits at an elevation of around 164 metres, surrounded by other local communities such as Queslett and Old Oscott. Pheasey has a population of around 4989 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Pheasey is located inland, about 104 miles northwest of London.
Pheasey and West Midlands: AdBlue drains across the area
Old Oscott and Kingstanding are among the towns near Pheasey, a rural village, that the same teams cover, over B postcodes. A postcode starting B43 7 gets our van to you fastest.
Moving your car isn't needed. The drain takes place on the spot, whether a drive, a street by Beacon Church, or a lay-by towards Fox Plantation. Tricky to pin down, like the back of Collingwood Centre? By a border? Asking beats assuming, so phone.
Pheasey drivers: the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Keep it off then phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, throughout West Midlands.