Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Pinley Gardens: Why It Occurs
Pause here a minute when your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Pinley Gardens. The rest of this page explains why it occurs and how to ensure it doesn't — handy if you're reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Not one liquid but two: that's what many newer diesels around Pinley Gardens and Pinley run, with diesel for your engine. Its own tank holds it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, where spraying treats the gas.
Each tank has its own filler. 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. Filling the diesel side at the pump goes on constantly. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less commonly. It is in that gap that the error happens.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place around Pinley Gardens
Carelessness seldom explains it. What does is three things lining up together.
Haste follows from the warning. Your car tells 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 The Moorfield, or heading home in the car park outside The New Inn.
Then the vehicle is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Lastly, the spout goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in as easily, and after the tip begins, no part stops it. It takes a few seconds, be it in Lower Stoke or bang in the heart of Pinley Gardens.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A few seconds is all these take — so check them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Gosford Green or a forecourt around Pinley Gardens.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally isn't. Read it instead of going by position.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on many vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside your fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on many cars. Check for it.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by your diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Coventry, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
For the day the warning appears — anywhere it is in West Midlands — a routine to use.
- Turn off once parked — flat ground, motor off, and not in a rush beside Princes Close at the roadside.
- 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 your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the car, close the cap and check again that the diesel cap was never opened off.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Never go on to stage five.
Pinley Gardens: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your engine. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch the car on. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
The attendants at Asda, Gulf or any forecourt will usually help pushing your car away when asked. At home around Pinley Gardens? So the vehicle stays where it is.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. On the M69, under 5 miles from Pinley Gardens, that means the next junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Coventry, under 3 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Pinley Gardens.
Pinley Gardens: what occurs when we arrive
Outside Aldermoor Farm Primary School, near St Catherine's Church, Stoke Aldermoor or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, our engineers come to it. Those answers decide this work and the quote, and so our engineers ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether it has run. You get that quote by phone, before anyone heads out.
Draining the tank comes next, then a full flush of the fuel system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more here than with petrol. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. The engine is fired up next and tested to confirm it runs correctly, all before our technicians leave.
With pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where your engine has not run need roughly half an hour after our technicians are there. Nothing upfront; you settle up that day. At the end, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Pinley Gardens
Pinley Gardens is a suburban area located on the outskirts of Coventry, near the River Sherbourne, with a mix of terraced housing and local amenities. Pinley Gardens sits at an elevation of 84 metres, close to the city centre and nearby neighbourhoods such as Lower Stoke and Whitley. Pinley Gardens is part of the larger Coventry urban area, with easy access to the city's facilities and services. Pinley Gardens has a population of around 7951 residents, living in a variety of predominantly terraced homes.
Pinley Gardens and West Midlands: AdBlue drains across the area
Stoke Aldermoor and Whitley are among the towns around Pinley Gardens, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, over CV postcodes. Give a postcode that starts CV3 1, and our van gets there fastest.
Your car does not need to move. Draining takes place right there, be it a drive, a road by Alan Higgs Sports Centre, or a lay-by towards Pinley Fields. Awkward to pin down, like the back of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? Close to a county line? Checking is better than guessing, and so phone.
For Pinley Gardens people, the short version
Read the cap before you pour. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it wherever it is, anywhere around West Midlands: keep the car off and ring 0333 366 0103.