Smythemoor: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Pause reading for a moment if the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and ring 0333 366 0103. A drain and a full flush, carried out right where the car sits around Smythemoor, is usually all it takes when caught before your engine runs. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel goes to your engine — yet many modern diesels seen about Smythemoor and Longford Turning carry a second liquid too. Its own tank holds it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, where spraying cleans the gas.
Every tank has a filler of its own. 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. Topping up your diesel side at the petrol pump happens all the time. Rarely topped up, AdBlue usually comes out of a bottle, poured by a driver who has to stop and think which cap to use. That gap is where the mistake lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Smythemoor: how it occurs
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, your vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Smythemoor before work, or in the car park outside the pub in the village on the way home.
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 hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Third, the spout goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in as easily, and after the tip begins, nothing stops it. Longford or the middle of Smythemoor: it takes the same few seconds in both.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Styche Hall or a forecourt in Smythemoor, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Go by the cap, not its position.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- Open the filler flap and look for a label — many vehicles mark what belongs in which inlet just there.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler is if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- The previous driver will know. Check as you collect a hire car or fleet car — from Prees's car park, perhaps — not once the light appears.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Shropshire that is.
- Pull in somewhere level, motor off, with time in hand — never hurried on the side of Shrewsbury Road.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, perhaps, yet it does the trick.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Stage five stays out.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Smythemoor?
Do not start the motor: that's where the short order of things begins. Leave your ignition off too, because on many diesels switching it on alone starts the pump. Diluting it with extra diesel won't work, since AdBlue sinks to the bottom rather than blending — and that's where your fuel is sucked from.
The attendants at Shell, Morrisons or any forecourt will usually lend a hand pushing the car clear if asked. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive around Smythemoor.
When your motor has been run by now, stop safely and switch it off. On the M6, under 15 miles from Smythemoor, that means the next junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Stoke-on-Trent, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Smythemoor.
What takes place when our engineers get there in Smythemoor
Our van comes to the vehicle anywhere it stopped — your own driveway, beside Saint Margaret's, or outside Moreton Say CofE Primary School. We ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it has run, because the replies decide this work and the quote. You get that price on the phone, before anyone sets off.
Then the tank is drained and the system rinsed thoroughly. More than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: the crystals form, some metals corrode, and none of that clears away on its own, no matter how long it is left. Filter cleaned or, if it must be, swapped; fresh diesel in; and then a check of your car. We don't go until it has been fired up and is running properly.
Using pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your motor hasn't run take about half an hour once our engineers arrive. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It is worth looking at your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Smythemoor
Smythemoor is a small hamlet situated on the riverside in Shropshire, with an elevation of 71 metres. Smythemoor lies near the cities of Stoke-on-Trent and the smaller settlements of Longford and Moreton Say. Smythemoor has a population of around 521 people, predominantly living in detached houses. Smythemoor is located in the West Midlands region, approximately 140 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Shropshire, Smythemoor included
Over TF postcodes, the teams that cover Smythemoor — a rural hamlet — work the nearby places too, Bletchley and Moreton Say included. Give a postcode beginning TF9 3, and the van gets there fastest.
There's no need to shift the car. We drain it where it is — a side street near Moreton Say Village Hall, a lay-by on the way to Castlehill Wood, a drive. Guessing won't help at the back of Moretoin Castle, close to a boundary, or somewhere awkward to pin down; ring and check.
In short, for Smythemoor people
Tip nothing till you have read the cap. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it wherever it stands, anywhere across Shropshire: switch the car off and phone 0333 366 0103.