How It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Stoke-on-Tern
Pause reading a minute when the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and call 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Stoke-on-Tern. Here in advance? Then the rest covers how it comes about and what to stop it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Many modern diesels in Rosehill, as well as Stoke-on-Tern, carry on two fluids; the motor takes only your diesel. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, and there a spray treats the gas.
Each tank has its own filler. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. Filling your diesel side at the pump goes on all the time. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less frequently, usually from a bottle, and normally by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. It's in that gap that the slip happens.
Stoke-on-Tern: how AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the car drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Langley Dale before work, or in the car park at the pub in the village on the way home.
The old car's filler is where the hand reaches — but a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That's the second thing: an unfamiliar vehicle.
A spouted bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, once begun, keeps on. It takes a few seconds, whether in Saltershill or bang in the heart of Stoke-on-Tern.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A few seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a drive in Ollerton or a forecourt around Stoke-on-Tern.
- Check the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually aren't.
- Plenty of vehicles give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Open the filler flap and check for a label — many motors mark what belongs in which filler right there.
- Cannot see it next to the diesel filler? Then look below the bonnet or in the boot — the handbook will say where.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at Prees, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
The day the light comes on, wherever around Shropshire, follow this routine.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of The Paddocks.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you have located the filler and read the cap.
- Both under one flap? So confirm the cap on the diesel side stays shut ahead of raising the bottle.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start your car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Spot at stage two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? So stop just there. Do not go on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Stoke-on-Tern already?
Do not start your motor: that's how the short order of things begins. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch it on. Thinning it with extra diesel won't work, since AdBlue settles to the base rather than blending — and that is where the fuel is pulled from.
The attendants at Shell, Morrisons or any forecourt will normally help pushing the vehicle away if you ask. Your own driveway around Stoke-on-Tern is where it should stay.
Where the engine has run by now, stop somewhere safe then turn the vehicle off. Stoke-on-Tern sits under 15 miles from the M54; there, use the next exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Stoke-on-Trent, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Stoke-on-Tern.
Our arrival around Stoke-on-Tern, and what takes place next
Anywhere your car came to rest, be it outside Stoke-on-Tern Primary School, near Stoke-On-Tern Village Hall or at home, the van travels to it. We ask what got in, about how much, and if it's run, since those replies decide the work and the quote. Nobody sets off until you have had the price over the phone.
After that: a drain, then a thorough flush of the entire system. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and none of it washes away by itself. Hence it matters more. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Before we go, our technicians fire it up and make sure that it is running smoothly.
If your motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Your insurer will ask for the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Misfuelling cover is included in many insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Stoke-on-Tern, for a moment
Stoke-on-Tern is a village in Shropshire, situated on the banks of the River Tern at an elevation of 71 metres. Stoke-on-Tern has a population of around 557 people, with a predominance of detached housing. Stoke-on-Tern is located near other small settlements such as Saltershill, Heathcote, and Heathbrook, and is within commuting distance of the city of Stoke-on-Trent, which is 19 miles away. Stoke-on-Tern is also relatively distant from London, at 137.6 miles away.
Stoke-on-Tern and Shropshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Heathcote and Heathbrook are among the towns around Stoke-on-Tern, a village, that the same teams cover, throughout TF postcodes. Give a postcode that starts TF9 2, and our van gets there fastest.
No need to shift the car. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Tunstall Wood, a side street near St Peter: we drain the car where it stands. Guessing doesn't help behind Maurice Chandler Sports Centre, close to a boundary, or anywhere awkward to describe; phone and check.
In short, for Stoke-on-Tern people
Before you tip, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere across Shropshire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same — so leave it off and ring 0333 366 0103.