Rockgreen: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and your ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. Usually, if your motor has not run, it is drained and thoroughly cleaned where the car sits around Rockgreen. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
No single liquid but two: that is what plenty of newer diesels near Rockgreen and Ludford carry, with diesel for the motor. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There's a filler for every tank. 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. At the petrol pump, your diesel side gets filled constantly. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less frequently, usually from a bottle, and usually by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake grows in that gap between them.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Rockgreen: how it occurs
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from the car, and letting it run dry leads to limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Duncow Road, perhaps outside Nelson Inn on the way home that evening.
Then the car is new. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Lastly, the bottle goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in as readily, and after the tip starts, nothing stops it. Ludlow or the middle of Rockgreen: it takes the same few seconds in both.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Be it a Rockgreen forecourt or a drive out in Henley, take a few seconds over these before anything is poured in.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally do not.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many motors say there which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler is if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Ludlow, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
For the day the light appears — anywhere it is around Shropshire — a routine to use.
- Switch off once parked — flat ground, engine off, and not rushed beside Fearney Avenue at the roadside.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap works — once you've found your filler and read it.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the 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.
- Before starting the car, shut the cap and look a second time that the diesel cap was never came off.
Spot at stage two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? So stop just there. Never go on to stage five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Rockgreen?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your motor. Do not switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel won't thin it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the base of the tank, just where the fuel is drawn from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it is the Applegreen or the another forecourt nearby, ask the attendants to help roll your car clear of the pump. Your own driveway around Rockgreen is where it stays.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your engine has already run. On the M54, under 25 miles from Rockgreen, that means the next exit. About how far did it go? Hopping across Rockgreen is smaller work than a run of under 25 miles to Hereford, and so say.
Rockgreen: what occurs when we get there
Our van comes to your car wherever it stopped — your own drive, near Ludlow Amateur Boxing Club, or by Ludlow Primary School. What fluid was put in, the quantity, and whether it ran: our engineers ask because the answers decide both work and price. Nobody heads out until you've heard our price over the phone.
Then your tank is drained and your system rinsed thoroughly. 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 that matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. Filter flushed or, where needed, swapped; clean diesel in; and then a test of your car. The engine is started next and tested to be sure it runs smoothly, all before our engineers head off.
With pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your engine has not run take about half an hour once our technicians are there. The insurer usually wants an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours once the job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. It is worth checking your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Rockgreen
Rockgreen is a village situated on the riverside in Shropshire, with a population of around 890 people. Rockgreen has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are the most common. Rockgreen is located near the towns of Ludlow and Hereford, and is close to other small villages such as Sheet and Lower Ledwyche. Rockgreen sits at an elevation of 115 metres above sea level, in a scenic area of the West Midlands region.
AdBlue drains across Shropshire, Rockgreen included
Rockgreen is a village, and the vans that cover it also work the places near it, Sheet and Lower Ledwyche among them, across the SY postcode area. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting SY8 2.
The vehicle does not need to move. Draining happens on the spot, whether a driveway, a street by St Peter, or a layby on the way to Wheeler Road Playing Fields. Guessing doesn't help at the back of St Julian's Well, close to a border, or somewhere awkward to pin down; ring and check.
In short, for Rockgreen people
Pour no AdBlue until you have read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave it off and ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere across Shropshire.