Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Stowe: Why It Happens
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and the ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Stowe. The remainder of this page covers why it occurs and how to ensure it doesn't — useful if you're reading ahead of time.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Many newer diesels in Boley Park, like those in Stowe, carry on two fluids; the motor takes only the diesel. Your exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the fumes to fresh it, from its own tank.
There's a filler for each tank. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the arrangement on many cars. On others, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in your boot instead. Filling your diesel side at the pump happens constantly. Much less often, the AdBlue side is filled — mostly from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. The slip lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank take place around Stowe?
Carelessness rarely causes it. What does is three things lining up together.
Haste comes from the warning. The car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a driveway off Auchinleck Drive, or on the way home in the car park outside The Duke of York.
Then the vehicle is new. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
No part stops the tip once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Nether Stowe or the heart of Stowe: it is the same few seconds in both.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Leomansley or a forecourt around Stowe, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Check the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually are not.
- On many motors, size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Open the filler flap and check for a label — many cars mark what goes in each filler just there.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by the diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Lichfield City, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
Anywhere across Staffordshire the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Stop on level, engine off, with time to spare — not hurried on the side of Netherstowe.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft. It works.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where both share a flap, confirm it's shut before lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start your car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Discover at the second or third stage that AdBlue went in the diesel filler? That's where you stop. Never go on to step five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Stowe?
The short order of things, beginning with not starting the motor. Do not switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Thinning it with extra diesel fails, because AdBlue settles to the base rather than mixing — and that's where the fuel is sucked from.
The attendants at Tesco, Esso or any forecourt will normally help to push the car clear when asked. If you're on your own driveway in Stowe, leave the car where it stands.
Already run? Pull over when it is safe, then switch off. The next exit means the place to come off when you're on the M6 Toll, under 3 miles from Stowe. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Lichfield, under a mile away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Stowe.
What takes place when our engineers turn up around Stowe
By St Chad's CofE Primary School, close to St Chad or on your own driveway: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our engineers come to it. Our engineers ask what was put in, about how much, and if it's run, because the replies determine this work and our price. No one sets off until you have heard the quote over the phone.
The system is then cleaned thoroughly, once the tank is cleared. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Next our technicians start the engine and make sure it runs properly before leaving.
Using pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where your engine has not run take roughly half an hour once we are there. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork your insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Stowe, briefly
Stowe is a suburban area located on the outskirts of Lichfield in Staffordshire, situated near the lakeside at an elevation of 83 metres. Stowe sits in close proximity to Nether Stowe and is connected to the nearby city of Lichfield, with Christ Church also nearby. Stowe has a population of approximately 5046 residents and predominantly features semi-detached housing.
Stowe and Staffordshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout WS postcodes, the vans covering Stowe — a residential suburb — work the surrounding spots too, Christ Church and Lichfield included. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting WS13 6.
There's no need to move the car. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Remembrance Garden, a side street close to Life Church Lichfield: our technicians drain the vehicle where it is. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of The Formation of Poetry.
The short version for Stowe drivers
Always, the cap; after that, the tip. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will empty it wherever it is, wherever in Staffordshire: keep the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103.