Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Seighford: Why It Occurs
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and your ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. Around Seighford, catching it before the engine runs normally means draining and a full flush on the spot. Reading before the event? In that case the rest covers why it comes about and what to prevent it happening at all.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Many newer diesels on the roads round Seighford and Little Bridgeford carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, and there spraying treats the fumes.
Different tanks, different fillers. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. Filling the diesel side at the pump goes on all the time. Much less frequently, the AdBlue side gets topped up — mostly from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. Mistakes happen in the gap between the two.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Seighford: how it happens
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Clanford Road before work, or in the car park outside The Holly Bush on the way home.
Next, the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old vehicle — because a rental car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
A spouted bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, after started, carries on. Great Bridgeford or the heart of Seighford: it is the same few seconds in both.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Look at these first, on a forecourt around Seighford or a driveway out in Aston. A few seconds, that's all.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually isn't. Read it rather than going by position.
- The size. On plenty of cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of cars say there which fuel goes where.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler sits if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at Norton Bridge, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
On the day the light comes on — anywhere you are around Staffordshire — a simple routine to follow.
- Switch off once parked — flat ground, engine stopped, and not rushed by Seighford Road at the roadside.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap works — once you've located your filler and read it.
- The two behind one flap? So make sure the lid on the diesel side stays closed before raising the bottle.
- 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 a second time, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Don't go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Seighford?
Brief list, then. Top of it: your motor remains off. Do not switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Topping up with diesel will not weaken it: instead, AdBlue drops to the bottom of that tank, right where the fuel is drawn from.
Ask the staff to help roll your car clear of the pump if you're at a forecourt — the Shell, the Esso or anywhere else. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway around Seighford.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the motor has already run. Come off the M6 — under 3 miles out of Seighford — at the next junction. About how far did it go? Crossing Seighford is smaller a job than a trip of under 15 miles to Stoke-on-Trent, and so say.
Seighford: what occurs when our technicians arrive
Wherever the car came to rest, be it by Cooper Perry Primary School, beside St Chad or at home, the van comes to it. The answers decide the work and the price, so our technicians ask what got in, about how much, and if it has run. You hear that quote on the phone, before anybody heads out.
Then that tank is emptied and the fuel system cleaned thoroughly. Much more than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: the crystals form, some metals are attacked, and none of it washes away unaided, however long it is left. After your filter has been cleaned — or replaced, if needed — clean diesel goes in, and finally the vehicle is tested. We do not leave until it has been started and is running correctly.
If your engine hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Your insurer will ask for the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. It is worth looking at your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Seighford and where it is
Seighford is a village in Staffordshire, situated on the banks of the River Sow, with a mix of rural and residential areas. Seighford has a relatively low elevation of 93 metres and is located near the villages of Great Bridgeford and Creswell. Seighford is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its rural setting. Seighford is also close to the larger urban area of Stoke-on-Trent, which is approximately 13.5 miles away.
Seighford and Staffordshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout ST postcodes, our vans that cover Seighford — a village — work the nearby locations too, Creswell and Butter Bank among them. Quickest of all: quote a ST18 9 postcode to our van.
The car stays where it is. Wherever it sits — near Segway & Driving Experience, in a layby en route to Long Covert, at home — that is where it gets cleared. Assuming won't help behind Great Bridgeford Village Hall, on a border, or somewhere hard to pin down; ring and ask.
In short, for Seighford people
Read the cap before you tip. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it wherever it is, wherever in Staffordshire: switch the vehicle off then call 0333 366 0103.