How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Portway
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and your ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, carried out right where the car stands in Portway, is normally all it takes when found before the motor runs. Reading before the event? In that case what follows explains how it comes about and how to prevent it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel goes to your motor — but many modern diesels driven around Portway and Grace Mary Estate carry a second fluid as well. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, where a spray cleans the gas.
Each tank has its own filler. Other cars keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty more have both side by side behind one flap. Topping up the diesel side at the pump happens all the time. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less often. The mistake lives in that gap.
Portway: how AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from the vehicle, and letting it run dry means limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Portway Road, perhaps outside The Fourways on the way home after work.
Next, your hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old motor — because a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't.
Nothing stops the tip after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Portway or out in Whiteheath Gate.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Look at these first, at a forecourt in Portway or a drive out in Darbys Hill. Seconds, no more.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on many cars. Look for it.
- Cannot find it next to your diesel inlet? In that case look below the bonnet or in the boot — the handbook will say where.
- The previous driver knows. Check as you collect a rental or fleet car — from Rowley Regis's car park, say — not when the warning appears.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
For the day the warning comes on — anywhere it is across West Midlands — a routine to follow.
- Stop on level, engine off, with time in hand — never rushing on the side of Throne Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- The two under a single flap? Then confirm the cap on your diesel filler stays closed ahead of raising the bottle.
- Finish when your tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; before that, pour slowly using the own spout.
- Shut the cap, and look again — making sure your diesel cap remained closed throughout. Only then, start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Do not go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Portway?
The short order of things, beginning with not starting your motor. Do not switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel will not dilute it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the base of the tank, right where the fuel is taken from.
Ask the staff to help roll your car away from the pump if you're at a forecourt — the the nearest petrol station, the Esso or somewhere else. Your own drive around Portway is the place it should stay.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the motor has already run. The next junction is the place to come off if you're on the M5, under a mile from Portway. A short hop across Portway is a smaller job than a run towards Birmingham, under 10 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
Our arrival around Portway, and what takes place next
Our engineers come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Rowley Hall Primary School, close to St James or on your own driveway. The answers settle the work and our quote, and so our engineers ask what got in, about how much, and whether it's run. You hear that price by phone, before anyone sets off.
The system is then rinsed thoroughly, once your tank is drained. Much more than with petrol, it matters here: the crystals build up, some metals are attacked, and nothing washes away on its own, no matter how long it is left. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Before leaving, our engineers fire it up and confirm that it's running smoothly.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour once we get there, provided the motor hasn't run — and the pumps our engineers use are fine on a live forecourt and quiet after dark outside a house. Nothing in advance; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Portway itself
Portway is a suburban area in the West Midlands, situated approximately 5.9 miles southwest of Birmingham city centre. Portway sits at an elevation of 191 metres, amidst the rolling hills of the West Midlands landscape. Portway is characterised by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock, with nearby amenities and transport links to Birmingham and other local areas, including Whiteheath Gate, Tippity Green, and Rowley Regis.
Portway and West Midlands: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout B postcodes, the vans that cover Portway — a residential suburb — work the nearby places too, Rowley Regis and Tippity Green included. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting B65 9.
Your car does not need to shift. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Black Country Millennium Forest, a side street near Christadelphian Hall: we drain the car where it sits. Assuming doesn't help behind Portway Lifestyle Centre, close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe; ring and check.
The short version for Portway drivers
Tip no AdBlue until you've read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere across West Midlands, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — and so leave it off then phone 0333 366 0103.