Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Pontesbury: Why It Occurs
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case put this page down for now, leave your ignition and motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Pontesbury. The remainder of this page covers why it takes place and how to ensure it does not — handy if you're reading ahead of time.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Diesel goes to your motor — yet many current diesels driven round Pontesbury and Pontesford carry a second liquid as well. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Separate tanks, different fillers. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in on every forecourt visit, week in, week out. Much less frequently, the AdBlue side gets topped up — mostly from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. It's in that gap that the error happens.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank happens in Pontesbury
Carelessness seldom causes it. What does is three things lining up at once.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the vehicle, and letting it run out means limp mode — so a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off School Green, perhaps at The Plough on the way home that evening.
Then your car is strange. A hire car, a new motor 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.
Nothing stops the pour once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Pontesbury Hill or the middle of Pontesbury: it is the same few seconds either way.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Whether a Pontesbury forecourt or a drive over in Polesgate, take a few seconds on these before anything goes in.
- Read the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually are not.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside your fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Check for it.
- The handbook shows which it lives when your filler is not next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Shrewsbury, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
When the light comes on, anywhere across Shropshire, use this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Main Road, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park and switch off properly.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew it. It seems daft. It does the trick.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, then look again — confirm the diesel cap stayed closed the whole time. After that, start the car.
Find during the second or third step that the bottle went in the diesel tank? That is where you stop. Step five stays off limits.
Pontesbury: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the motor. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels the moment your ignition goes on — and so keep it off. Filling up with diesel won't weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the base of the tank, just where fuel is taken from.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it's the Texaco or the Shell, ask the staff to help push your car clear of the petrol pump. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive in Pontesbury.
Already started? Pull over when it's safe, then switch off. On the M54, under 15 miles from Pontesbury, that means the next exit. A short hop across Pontesbury is a smaller job than a run towards Wrexham, under 50 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
What happens when our technicians arrive in Pontesbury
By Pontesbury CofE Primary School, near Saint George's Church or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, we come to it. Those replies determine this work and our quote, and so we ask what got in, roughly how much, and if it has run. Nobody sets off until you've had the quote by phone.
Emptying that tank comes next, then a thorough flush of the fuel system. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and neither clears out by itself. Hence it matters more. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. We don't leave until it has been started and is running smoothly.
Unrun vehicles mostly need a half-hour visit after the moment we arrive. The kit is fine on a busy filling station, and quiet enough for a residential street late at night. Your insurer usually wants an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. It is worth checking your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Pontesbury
Pontesbury is a village in Shropshire, situated inland at an elevation of 107 metres, with nearby landmarks including Pontesbury Hill and Nills Hill. Pontesbury has a population of approximately 1662 residents, living in predominantly detached housing. Pontesbury is located near Pool Bank and is about 27.9 miles from Wrexham, the nearest city. Pontesbury is also around 141.3 miles from London, making it a rural community in the West Midlands region.
AdBlue drains around Pontesbury, and Shropshire beyond
Pontesbury is a rural village, and the vans that cover it also work the places near it, Nills Hill and Pool Bank among them, across the SY postcode area. Quickest of all: give a SY5 0 postcode to the van.
Shifting the vehicle is not necessary. The drain happens right there, whether a driveway, a road by Pontesbury Congregational Church, or a lay-by towards Pontesbury Sports Ground. Assuming doesn't help behind Pontesbury Baptist Church, close to a border, or somewhere hard to pin down; phone and check.
For Pontesbury drivers, the short version
Pour no AdBlue until you have read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Leave it switched off then call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, throughout Shropshire.