Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Sandwell: Why It Happens
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and the ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. Caught before your motor runs, it is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Sandwell. Here in advance? Then what follows covers why it happens and how to prevent it ever happening.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Plenty of newer diesels on the roads round Sandwell and Handsworth carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, where spraying cleans the gas.
Each tank has a filler of its own. Other cars put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others have the two together behind one flap. Diesel goes in on each filling station visit, again and again. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less regularly. The error lives in that gap.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Sandwell: how it occurs
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the car, and running dry means limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Halfords Lane, perhaps outside Waggon & Horses on the way home that evening.
Then the vehicle is new. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, once begun, carries on. Soho or the heart of Sandwell: it takes the same few seconds either way.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Whether a Sandwell forecourt or a driveway out in Black Patch, spend a couple of seconds on these before anything goes in.
- Position can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally don't.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Look inside the fuel flap: many cars have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- Can't find it next to your diesel filler? Then check below the bonnet or inside the boot — the handbook says where.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at The Hawthorns, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
When the light comes on, anywhere across West Midlands, use this routine.
- Switch off once parked — level ground, engine stopped, and never in a rush by Lewisham Road at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Finish once the tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; until then, tip slowly using the built-in spout.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Don't go on to step five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Sandwell?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your motor. The fuel pump starts on many diesels as soon as your ignition is switched on — and so keep it off. Filling up with diesel will not dilute it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of your tank, just where fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — BP, EG HANDSWORTH PFS or any other — the staff will usually help push the car away, if you ask. On your own drive in Sandwell? Then the car stays put.
When the engine has been run already, pull over safely then switch it off. Leave the M5 — under a mile out of Sandwell — at the first junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Birmingham, under 5 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Sandwell.
Our arrival in Sandwell, and what takes place next
Anywhere your car came to rest, be it by Galton Valley Primary School, near Masjid-e-Baitul Amaan or at home, our van comes to it. Both the work and the price depend on three answers — what fluid, which quantity, and if it has run — so we ask. Nobody heads out before you've heard the price over the phone.
Emptying that tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the system. 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 counts more here than with petrol. Testing is at the end: before that, clean diesel goes in, and the fuel filter is flushed or changed as needed. The motor is fired up next and tested to confirm it runs correctly, all before we leave.
If your motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. While we travel, take a look at your policy; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Sandwell, briefly
Sandwell is a suburban area in the West Midlands, situated near the River Tame and close to the city of Birmingham. Sandwell sits at an elevation of 159 metres, with terraced housing being the predominant type of accommodation in the area. Sandwell is located near several other suburban areas, including Soho, Smethwick, and West Smethwick, and is approximately 3.2 miles from Birmingham city centre. Sandwell has a population of around 5142 people, according to recent estimates.
AdBlue drains around Sandwell and across West Midlands
Being a residential suburb, Sandwell shares its vans surrounding places — Smethwick, West Smethwick — all the way through B postcodes and the surrounding area around them. Quickest of all: give a B66 1 postcode for the van.
No need to shift the car. Draining happens on the spot, be it a drive, a road by brasshouse, or a layby on the way to Black Country Millennium Forest. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Providence Church? By a border? Checking is better than assuming, so ring.
The short version for Sandwell drivers
First, the cap; then, the tip. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Leave it off and call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, throughout West Midlands.