How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Shawbury
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and the ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before your motor runs, it is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Shawbury. Not happened yet? Below, the rest of the page explains the why it happens and the how to avoid it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Many newer diesels around Moreton Corbet, like those in Shawbury, carry on two fluids; the motor gets only the diesel. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust stream and cleans it.
Each tank has its own filler. Other motors keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others have both side by side under one flap. Diesel gets filled at every filling station call-out, week in, week out. Much less regularly, the AdBlue side is filled — mostly from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. Mistakes happen in that gap between them.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Shawbury: how it happens
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from the car, and running out leads to limp mode — so a rushed top-up, maybe before work off A53, perhaps outside Elephant and Castle on the way home after work.
Then your 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 reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spouted bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, after begun, carries on. Whether it occurs in The Groves or the middle of Shawbury, it's the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Morton Mill or a forecourt around Shawbury, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Read the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually are not.
- Many cars give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Look inside the fuel flap: plenty of cars have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- Cannot find it next to the diesel filler? In that case check below the bonnet or in your boot — the owner's manual will say which.
- Ask 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 Yorton.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
For the day the light comes on — wherever you are across Shropshire — a routine to use.
- Stop on level, motor off, with time to spare — not hurried on the side of Church Street.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you've found the filler and read the cap.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Only then, start the vehicle: close the cap, check again, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Stage five is out.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Shawbury?
Do not start the engine: that is how the short order of things starts. Leave your ignition off as well, because on plenty of diesels switching it on alone starts the pump. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
The attendants at Pace, BP or any forecourt will usually lend a hand pushing the car clear when asked. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive in Shawbury.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Shawbury sits under 10 miles from the M54; on it, use the next exit. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Wrexham, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Shawbury.
What takes place when our engineers turn up around Shawbury
Our technicians come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside St Marys CofE Primary School, near St. Mary the Virgin, Shawbury or on your own driveway. Which fluid got in, the quantity, and whether it ran: our engineers ask since those answers decide the work and quote. Nobody heads out before you've heard the price over the phone.
Draining that tank comes next, followed by a full flush of your system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more here than with petrol. Testing is at the end: before that, clean diesel is added, and the fuel filter is cleaned or replaced if necessary. Before we leave, our technicians start the engine and check that it's running smoothly.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour once our technicians arrive, as long as your motor has not run — and the pumps we use are safe on a live forecourt yet quiet at night beside a house. Your insurer usually wants an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. Misfuelling cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Shawbury, briefly
Shawbury is a village in Shropshire, situated on the banks of a river at an elevation of 72 metres. Shawbury lies near several smaller settlements, including The Groves, Little Wytheford, and Edgebolton, and is located approximately 22.9 miles from Wrexham. Shawbury has a population of around 1447 people, predominantly living in semi-detached houses. Shawbury is also relatively distant from London, at a distance of 138.9 miles.
AdBlue drains around Shawbury, and Shropshire beyond
Little Wytheford and Edgebolton are among the towns near Shawbury, a village, that the same vans cover, throughout SY postcodes. Fastest of all: quote a SY4 4 postcode for the van.
Your car doesn't need to shift. Draining happens right there, be it a drive, a street by Shawbury Village Hall, or a lay-by towards Shawbury Recreation Ground. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Westland Wessex XR516.
The short version for Shawbury people
Pour nothing until you have read the cap. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it where it is, anywhere in Shropshire: keep the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103.