AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Selly Park: How It Occurs and How to Prevent It
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case set this page down a moment, leave the ignition and motor off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Selly Park. The remainder of this page covers why it occurs and how to ensure it doesn't — handy if you're reading ahead of time.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Plenty of current diesels on the roads round Selly Park and Stirchley carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There is a filler on each tank. Under one flap, side by side: that's the layout on a lot of motors. On others, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. Topping up the diesel side at the pump goes on all the time. Seldom filled, AdBlue normally goes in from a bottle, poured by a driver who has to stop and think what cap to use. The mistake lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place around Selly Park
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
Hurry follows from the warning. The vehicle tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a drive off Greenland Road, or heading home in the car park outside The Highbury.
Then, your hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old motor — because a hire car, a new car or a company car places the fillers where your last one didn't.
A spouted bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, after begun, carries on. It takes seconds, be it out in Ten Acres or right in the heart of Selly Park.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Cannon Hill or a forecourt in Selly Park, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally don't.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside your fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Check for it.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler is if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- The previous driver knows. Ask as you collect a hire car or fleet car — at Pineapple Road's car park, perhaps — rather than when the warning comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
On the day the warning appears — anywhere it is across West Midlands — a routine to use.
- Stop on level, engine off, with time to spare — never rushing on the side of The Nursery.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" aloud while unscrewing it. It seems silly. It does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the vehicle on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Never go on to stage five.
Selly Park: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Don't start your motor: that is how the short order of things starts. Keep the ignition off too, since on many diesels switching it on by itself starts your pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is drawn from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
The staff at BP, Texaco or any forecourt will usually help to push the vehicle clear if you ask. Your own drive in Selly Park is where it stays.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. On the Aston Expressway, under 5 miles from Selly Park, that means the next exit. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Selly Park is smaller a job than a run of under 3 miles to Birmingham, and so say.
When our engineers arrive in Selly Park, what occurs?
Anywhere your car came to rest, be it outside St Edward's Catholic Primary School, beside Christ Church Selly Park or on your own drive, our van travels to it. The answers determine this work and the price, so our technicians ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it's run. The price is given over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
Emptying the tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the system. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own. Testing is at the end: before that, clean diesel is added, and your filter is cleaned or replaced as needed. We do not leave until it has been started and is running correctly.
Unstarted cars mostly need a half-hour job from arrival. The kit is fine on a live forecourt, and quiet enough for a residential street late at night. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork your insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Selly Park
Selly Park is a suburban area in the West Midlands, situated on the banks of the River Rea, with a mix of terraced housing and local amenities. Selly Park sits approximately 2.9 miles southwest of Birmingham city centre, near the neighbouring areas of Ten Acres, Bournbrook, and Moor Green. Selly Park has a population of around 8443 residents, living in a relatively low-lying area at an elevation of 132 metres. Selly Park is connected to the wider region, with London being around 99.7 miles to the southeast.
AdBlue drains about Selly Park, and West Midlands beyond
Throughout B postcodes, the vans covering Selly Park — a residential suburb — work the nearby locations too, Moor Green and Bournbrook among them. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting B29 7.
Shifting the car is not needed. We drain it where it is — a side street close to Selly Park Baptist Church, a lay-by on the way to Selly Hill Park, a driveway. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you are near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Catholic Church of St Edward.
The short version for Selly Park drivers
Read the cap before you tip. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Keep it off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, throughout West Midlands.