Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Sparkhill
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then set this page down for now, keep the ignition and motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. Normally, when the motor hasn't run, it's emptied and fully cleaned where your car sits around Sparkhill. Here in advance? Then the rest explains how it comes about and what to stop it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Diesel feeds the engine — yet plenty of newer diesels driven around Sparkhill and Springfield hold another liquid too. Your exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the gas to clean it, from a separate tank.
Each tank comes with one filler of its own. Many of cars share a single flap for the two, whereas others move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, your diesel side is topped up constantly. Much less regularly, the AdBlue side is topped up — normally from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. It is in that gap that the mistake happens.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place around Sparkhill
Carelessness seldom causes it. Instead is three things lining up at once.
Hurry follows from the warning. The vehicle warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a drive off Thornhill Road, or on the way home in the car park outside The Bear.
Next, your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old motor — because a rental car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
Lastly, the spout fits: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in just as readily, and once the tip starts, no part stops it. It takes a few seconds, whether in Greet or bang in the heart of Sparkhill.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Look at these before pouring, on a forecourt in Sparkhill or a drive over in Small Heath. A few seconds, that's all.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually don't.
- Many vehicles give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Lift the flap and check for a label — many cars mark which belongs in each inlet right there.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by the diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Tyseley.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
Wherever in West Midlands the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Pull in somewhere level, engine off, with time to spare — never hurried on the side of Percy Road.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, perhaps, yet it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave it on.
- Finish when that tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; before that, tip slowly using its built-in spout.
- Shut the cap, and check once more — making sure the diesel filler stayed closed the whole time. After that, start your car.
Find at step two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? So stop right there. Step five stays out.
Sparkhill: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with no starting the engine. The fuel pump starts on many diesels the moment your ignition is switched on — and so keep it off. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
Ask the attendants to help push your car away from the pump if you are on a forecourt — the Shell, the BP or anywhere else. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive in Sparkhill.
When your engine has run by now, stop somewhere safe then switch the vehicle off. On the Aston Expressway, under 5 miles from Sparkhill, that means the next junction. About how far did it go? Crossing Sparkhill is less work than a trip of under 3 miles towards Birmingham, and so tell us.
Sparkhill: what occurs when we arrive
Wherever the vehicle came to rest, be it by St John's CofE Primary School, beside Al-Bhokari Education Centre or at home, the van comes to it. Which liquid was put in, the amount, and whether it ran: our technicians ask since the answers decide the work and quote. That price is given over the phone, before any van leaves.
The system is then cleaned thoroughly, once the tank is cleared. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and neither washes out by itself. Hence it counts more. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. We do not leave until it has been started and is running correctly.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour once we get there, as long as your motor hasn't run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a live forecourt yet quiet at night outside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — and so use the wait to look at yours.
About Sparkhill and where it is
Sparkhill is a suburban area in the West Midlands, situated near the River Rea and close to the city of Birmingham. Sparkhill has a mix of terraced housing and other residential properties, with the area being approximately 116 metres above sea level. Sparkhill is located near several other suburban areas, including Greet, Showell Green, and Wake Green, and is about 2.8 miles from Birmingham city centre. Sparkhill is also within commuting distance of London, being around 98.2 miles away.
AdBlue drains in Sparkhill and across West Midlands
Showell Green and Wake Green are among the towns around Sparkhill, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, throughout B postcodes. Quickest of all: quote a B11 3 postcode to the van.
Your car doesn't need to shift. The drain happens on the spot, be it a drive, a road by Bear and Staff, or a layby on the way to Burbury Brickworks. Tricky to explain, like the back of Jamia Abdullah Bin Masoud? By a border? Checking is better than assuming, and so ring.
In short, for Sparkhill motorists
Always, the cap; after that, the tip. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless, leave it off and phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it sits, anywhere around West Midlands.