Pipe Gate: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case put this page down a moment, keep the ignition and motor off, and ring 0333 366 0103. A drain and a full flush, done just where your vehicle sits around Pipe Gate, is usually all it takes when found before your engine runs. The rest of this page covers why it takes place and how to make sure it does not — handy if you're reading before it has happened.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Plenty of newer diesels in Bearstone, as well as Pipe Gate, run on two liquids; your engine takes just your diesel. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust stream and cleans it.
Different tanks, different fillers. Plenty of motors share a single flap for both, whereas some move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is fuelled at the petrol pump all the time. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less regularly. The slip lives in that gap.
Pipe Gate: how AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
Haste follows from the warning. The vehicle 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 Bearstone Road, or heading home in the car park at Chetwode Arms.
Unfamiliar vehicles are second, as well. Hire cars, new cars and company cars put their fillers in new places, and the hand reaches for the cap used on the old one.
A spouted bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, once begun, carries on. It's seconds, be it in Dorrington or right in the heart of Pipe Gate.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Willoughbridge or a forecourt in Pipe Gate, check these. They take a few seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually isn't. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- Plenty of motors give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many motors say there which fuel goes where.
- Can't find it beside your diesel inlet? In that case check below the bonnet or inside the boot — the handbook will say which.
- The previous driver will know. Check when you pick up a rental or company car — from Nantwich's car park, say — not when the warning comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
The day the light goes on, anywhere around Shropshire, follow this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Pipe Gate, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park and switch off properly.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap works — once you've found your filler and read the cap.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, then check again — making sure the diesel cap stayed closed the whole time. After that, start the vehicle.
Spot at stage two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? Then stop just there. Do not go on to step five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Pipe Gate?
Don't start your motor: that is how the short order of things starts. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels the moment your ignition is switched on — so leave it off. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is pulled from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it's the Baldwins Gate Filling Station or the Shell, ask the staff to help roll the vehicle clear of the pump. If you're on your own drive around Pipe Gate, leave it where it stands.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the engine has already run. The next junction is the place to leave if you are on the M6, under 5 miles from Pipe Gate. Mileage matters — a quick hop across Pipe Gate is a smaller job than driving under 15 miles towards Stoke-on-Trent — so tell us about how far it went.
Our arrival in Pipe Gate, and what happens next
Anywhere the vehicle came to rest, whether by Woore Primary and Nursery School, near Knighton Village Hall or at home, our van travels to it. Both the work and the quote depend on three replies — what fluid, what quantity, and whether it has run — so we ask. You hear that quote on the phone, before anyone sets off.
After that: draining, then a thorough flush of the whole system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that matters 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. Then our technicians start the engine and check it runs smoothly before leaving.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour after we arrive, as long as your motor hasn't run — and the pumps our engineers use are fine on a busy forecourt yet quiet at night beside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Misfuelling cover is included in many insurance policies — and so use the wait to check yours.
About Pipe Gate itself
Pipe Gate is a small village in Shropshire, situated inland at an elevation of around 120 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Pipe Gate lies near the villages of Dorrington and Irelands Cross, and is approximately 10 miles from Stoke-on-Trent. Pipe Gate is a rural community with a population of around 522 people, set in the rolling countryside of the West Midlands region. Pipe Gate is also relatively distant from London, at a distance of around 139 miles.
AdBlue drains across Shropshire, Pipe Gate included
Knighton and Irelands Cross are among the places near Pipe Gate, a rural village, that the same teams cover, over TF postcodes. A postcode starting TF9 4 gets the van to you fastest.
Shifting the car is not necessary. Draining takes place on the spot, be it a drive, a street near Dorothy Clive Garden, or a layby towards Knighton Cutting. Tricky to explain, like the back of Aston Chapel? By a county line? Asking beats assuming, so ring.
For Pipe Gate motorists, the short version
Tip no AdBlue till you have read the cap. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it wherever it stands, wherever around Shropshire: keep the vehicle off then phone 0333 366 0103.