Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Red Lake: Why It Happens
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then set this page down for now, leave the ignition and motor off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Around Red Lake, finding it before the engine runs normally means draining and a full flush on the spot. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it does not.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
No single liquid but two: that is how many newer diesels near Red Lake and Ketley Bank carry, with diesel for your motor. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust stream and cleans it.
Different tanks, separate fillers. Some cars keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty more place both side by side behind one flap. Diesel gets filled on every forecourt visit, again and again. Far less frequently, the AdBlue side gets topped up — normally from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. Mistakes happen in the gap between them.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place around Red Lake
Carelessness rarely causes it. What does is three things lining up together.
Hurry follows from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a drive off Hill Top, or heading home in the car park outside The Compasses Inn.
Then the car is new. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
No part stops the tip after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Red Lake or out in Overdale.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Check these before pouring, on a forecourt in Red Lake or a driveway out in Oakengates. A few seconds, no more.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Trust the cap, not its position.
- On many cars, size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Look inside the fuel flap: plenty of motors have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows where it is if the filler is not next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Oakengates.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
For the day the light comes on — wherever it is in Shropshire — a simple routine to follow.
- Switch off once parked — flat ground, motor off, and never in a rush beside Shepherds Lane at the roadside.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you've located the filler and read it.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check again, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Spot at stage two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? So stop right there. Don't go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Red Lake?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with no starting your engine. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch the car on. Thinning it with extra diesel fails, because AdBlue settles to the base rather than blending — and that is where the fuel is sucked from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it's the Esso or the Tesco, ask the staff to help push the car clear of the petrol pump. On your own drive in Red Lake? So the vehicle stays where it is.
When your motor has been run by now, pull over safely and turn the vehicle off. The next junction means the place to come off when you are on the M54, under a mile from Red Lake. A short hop across Red Lake is a smaller job than a run towards Wolverhampton, under 25 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
What takes place when we turn up in Red Lake
We come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Meadows Primary School and Nursery, close to St Mary the Virgin or on your own driveway. Both the work and our price rest on three replies — which fluid, which amount, and if it has run — so we ask. No one heads out until you've heard our quote over the phone.
Your system is then cleaned thoroughly, after your tank is drained. More than with petrol, it counts here: the crystals form, certain metals are attacked, and none of it washes away on its own, however long it sits. Once the filter is flushed — or replaced, where required — fresh diesel goes in, and finally the vehicle is tested. Your engine is fired up next and tested to be sure it runs correctly, all before our technicians head off.
Unstarted vehicles usually mean a half-hour visit from arrival. The kit is fine on a live forecourt, and hushed enough for a driveway after dark. The insurer will ask for an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Red Lake itself
Red Lake is a suburban area in Shropshire, situated inland at an elevation of 158 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Red Lake lies approximately 16 miles west of Wolverhampton and is part of the wider West Midlands region, with nearby places including Overdale, Newdale, and Wombridge. Red Lake has a population of around 3593 residents, who are within commuting distance of major cities like Wolverhampton. Red Lake is also relatively close to the Welsh border, with the countryside of Shropshire surrounding the area.
AdBlue drains across Shropshire, Red Lake included
Red Lake is a residential suburb, and our vans that cover it also work the places near it, Newdale and Wombridge among them, across the TF postcode area. Quickest of all: give a TF1 5 postcode to our van.
There's no need to move the car. The drain happens right there, whether a drive, a street near Ketley Methodist Church, or a layby on the way to Ketley Playing Fields. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Holy Trinity.
The short version for Red Lake drivers
Before you pour, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave the car off and phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it waits, anywhere around Shropshire.