Why It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Staden
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and the ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, done just where the car stands in Staden, is usually what it takes if found before the motor runs. Reading in advance? Then what follows explains why it comes about and how to prevent it ever happening.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Not one liquid but two: that is what plenty of newer diesels near Staden and Harpur Hill run, with diesel for the motor. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, where spraying treats the gas.
Every tank comes with a filler of its own. Under one flap, side by side: that is the layout on a lot of cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in the boot instead. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. Rarely filled, AdBlue normally comes from a bottle, tipped by a driver who has to stop and think what cap it needs. That gap is where the slip lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank happens around Staden
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from the car, and letting it run out means limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Duke's Drive, perhaps outside Blazing Rag on the way home that evening.
New-to-you cars are second, too. Rentals, new vehicles and company vehicles place their fillers differently, and habit reaches for the cap it used on the old one.
No part stops the pour once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Staden or out in Higher Buxton.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A couple of seconds is all these take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a drive in The Park or a forecourt around Staden.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally do not.
- On many cars, size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside your fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Look for it.
- The handbook shows which it lives if the filler is not next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Buxton, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
When the light comes on, wherever across Derbyshire, follow this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Bakewell Road, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park and switch off properly.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap works — once you have located the filler and read it.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the vehicle on.
- Finish when the tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; before that, pour slowly through the own spout.
- Close the cap, then look again — confirm your diesel filler remained shut the whole time. Only then, start the vehicle.
Find at stage two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? So stop right there. Never go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Staden?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your motor. Don't switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Thinning it with extra diesel won't work, because AdBlue settles to the base rather than mixing — and that is where your fuel is pulled from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it's the Morrisons or the Esso, ask the staff to help push the car clear of the pump. If you are on your own driveway in Staden, leave the car where it stands.
Already started? Pull over once it is safe, then switch off. On the M67, under 25 miles from Staden, that means the next exit. Distance counts — a quick hop across Staden makes a smaller job than heading under 25 miles to Stoke-on-Trent — so tell us roughly how far it went.
Our arrival in Staden, and what occurs next
The van comes to your car wherever it has come to rest — your own drive, beside Buxton Library and Information Centre, or by St Peter's Church of England (VC) Junior School. What liquid went in, the amount, and if it ran: our engineers ask since those answers set both work and price. You get that quote by phone, before anyone heads out.
Then that tank is cleared and the system purged thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that matters more here than with petrol. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. After that our engineers fire it up and make sure it runs properly before we leave.
If your engine hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents an insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Before we get there, take a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Staden and where it is
Staden is a small hamlet in Derbyshire, situated near the River Wye and surrounded by rolling hills. Staden sits at an elevation of 309 metres, with views of the surrounding countryside. Staden is located near the towns of Buxton and Higher Buxton, and is within commuting distance of Stoke-on-Trent. Staden has a mix of housing types, but is predominantly composed of terraced homes.
AdBlue drains in Staden and across Derbyshire
Staden is a rural hamlet, and the teams that cover it also work the towns around it, Buxton and Cowdale among them, across the SK postcode area. Give a postcode that starts SK17 9, and our van arrives fastest.
The car does not need to move. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near Tarmac Silverlands Stadium, a lay-by on the way to Ashwood Dale, a drive. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Archie’s Farm? By a county line? Checking beats assuming, and so ring.
In short, for Staden drivers
Tip no AdBlue till you've read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave the car off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it sits, anywhere across Derbyshire.