Why It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Short Cross
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and your ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. Usually, if the motor hasn't turned, it's drained and thoroughly cleaned where your vehicle is around Short Cross. Here before the event? Then what follows covers how it comes about and what to prevent it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel goes to your motor — but many modern diesels seen round Short Cross and Haden Cross carry another liquid too. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, and there spraying cleans the fumes.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, side by side: that is the arrangement on many motors. On others, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in your boot instead. Topping up the diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. The AdBlue side is topped up far less frequently, normally from a bottle, and usually by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake grows in the gap between them.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place in Short Cross
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Furnace Hill before work, or in the car park outside Loyal Lodge on the way home.
Unfamiliar vehicles come second, too. Hire cars, new cars and company vehicles put their fillers in new places, and habit reaches for the cap 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 pour, after started, carries on. It's a few seconds, be it in Hawne or right in the centre of Short Cross.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Hill and Cakemore or a forecourt around Short Cross, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually isn't. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- The size. On many cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Lift the filler flap and look for a label — plenty of motors show which goes in each filler right there.
- The handbook shows where it lives if the filler isn't next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Old Hill, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
Wherever across West Midlands the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Switch off after you park — flat ground, motor stopped, and never in a rush beside Fairmile Road on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- The two under a single flap? So confirm the lid on the diesel side stays closed before raising the bottle.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Only then, start the vehicle: close the cap, check again, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Never go on to step five.
Short Cross: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
The short order of things, beginning with not starting the engine. Keep the ignition off as well, because on many diesels switching it on by itself runs your pump. Filling up with diesel will not thin it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the base of the tank, just where the fuel is taken from.
The attendants at BP, another forecourt nearby or another forecourt will normally lend a hand to push the vehicle away when you ask. Your own drive in Short Cross is where it should stay.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your motor has already run. Leave the M5 — under 3 miles out of Short Cross — at the next exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Birmingham, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Short Cross.
When our engineers arrive around Short Cross, what occurs?
Wherever your car has stopped, whether by Newfield Park Primary Academy, near The Grove or on your own drive, the van comes to it. Both the work and the quote rest on three answers — which fluid, what amount, and if it has run — so our technicians ask. On the phone call itself, you are told our quote — ahead of dispatch.
Next: draining, then a full flush of the whole system. Much more than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: the crystals build up, certain metals corrode, and nothing clears away unaided, however long it sits. Once your filter is flushed — or renewed, where required — clean diesel is added, and finally the vehicle is tested. The motor is started next and checked to make sure it runs correctly, all before we go.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour after we arrive, provided the motor has not run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a busy forecourt yet quiet at night beside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It is worth checking your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Short Cross itself
Short Cross is a locality situated on the riverside in the West Midlands, with an elevation of around 138 metres. Short Cross lies approximately 6.5 miles from Birmingham and is near other places such as Hawne, Halesowen, and Coombeswood. Short Cross has a population of around 1757 people and predominantly consists of semi-detached housing. Short Cross is located about 105 miles northwest of London.
Short Cross and West Midlands: AdBlue drains across the area
As a small village, Short Cross has the same vans as surrounding areas — Halesowen, Coombeswood — all the way across B postcodes and the surrounding area around them. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting B63 3.
The car does not need to move. Anywhere it stands — near Short Cross Methodist Church, on a layby heading to Furnace Coppice (Ancient Woodland), on a drive — that is where it is emptied. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Halesowen Baptist Church, ring and ask rather than assuming.
For Short Cross drivers, the short version
Read the cap before you pour. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave it off then call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it stands, anywhere across West Midlands.