Stony Cross: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then put this page aside a moment, keep the ignition and motor off, then phone 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, done just where your car sits around Stony Cross, is usually all it needs if found before your engine runs. Reading before the event? In that case the rest covers how it comes about and how to prevent it happening at all.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Many modern diesels around Ridgeway Cross, as well as Stony Cross, carry on two liquids; your motor takes just your diesel. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust gas to clean it.
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 the boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is filled at the petrol pump all the time. Far less regularly, the AdBlue side gets filled — normally from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. It is in that gap that the slip happens.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank take place around Stony Cross?
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from the car, and letting it run out means limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, maybe before work off A4103, perhaps at The Red Lion on the way home that evening.
New-to-you motors come second, too. Rentals, new vehicles and company vehicles put their fillers differently, and habit goes for the cap it used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the tip after it has started. It takes seconds, whether in Westfield or right in the heart of Stony Cross.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Mathon or a forecourt around Stony Cross, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps are often blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally do not.
- On plenty of vehicles, size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by your 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 collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Malvern Link.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
The day the light goes on, anywhere across Herefordshire, use this routine.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Chapel Lane.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew it. It sounds silly. It works.
- The two under a single flap? So confirm the cap on your diesel side stays closed before raising the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, and look once more — making sure the diesel cap remained shut the whole time. After that, start your car.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Don't go on to stage five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Stony Cross?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with no starting your motor. The fuel pump starts on many diesels the moment your ignition goes on — and so keep it off. Diluting it with extra diesel fails, since AdBlue settles to the bottom rather than blending — and that is where the fuel is sucked from.
At a forecourt — Texaco, Gulf or any other — the staff will usually help roll the vehicle clear, when you ask. Your own drive in Stony Cross is the place it should stay.
Already run? Stop once it is sensible, then turn off. The next junction is where to come off if you're on the M5, under 10 miles from Stony Cross. About how far did it go? Crossing Stony Cross is smaller work than a run of under 10 miles to Worcester, and so say.
Stony Cross: what occurs when we get there
By Cradley CofE Primary School, near Blue-Ginger or on your own drive: wherever your car has stopped, our engineers come to it. Our technicians ask what went in, about how much, and if it's run, since the replies decide this work and the price. You get that quote by phone, before anyone sets off.
Then that tank is drained and the fuel system purged thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. We do not go until it has been started and is running correctly.
With pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your engine has not run take about half an hour after we arrive. Your insurer usually wants the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. It's worth checking your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Stony Cross, briefly
Stony Cross is a small hamlet situated on the riverside in Herefordshire, with a mix of detached homes and rural landscapes. Stony Cross sits at an elevation of 102 metres, near the cities of Worcester and the surrounding villages of Westfield, Cradley, and Greenhill. Stony Cross is located approximately 9 miles from Worcester and 106 miles from London, making it a relatively rural community. Stony Cross has a population of around 775 residents, living in predominantly detached housing.
Stony Cross and Herefordshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Cradley and Greenhill are among the towns near Stony Cross, a rural hamlet, that the same vans cover, over WR postcodes. Quote a postcode that starts WR13 5, and the van gets there quickest.
There's no need to move the vehicle. Anywhere it sits — beside Saint James, on a lay-by heading to Blackhouse Rough, at home — that's where it is emptied. Assuming doesn't help at the back of Cradley Village Hall, on a border, or somewhere hard to describe; ring and check.
In short, for Stony Cross motorists
Always, the cap; after that, the tip. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave the vehicle off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere around Herefordshire.