Stowlawn: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then put this page down for now, keep the ignition and engine off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Normally, when the motor hasn't turned, it is emptied and fully cleaned where the vehicle sits around Stowlawn. The rest of this page explains why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't — handy if you are reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of modern diesels on the roads round Stowlawn and St Chads carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, where spraying treats the gas.
There's a filler for each tank. Some motors keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others have both together behind one flap. Filling your diesel side at the petrol pump happens constantly. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less frequently. The error lives in that gap.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Stowlawn: how it happens
Carelessness seldom causes it. Instead is three things lining up at once.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the car goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Proud's Lane before work, or in the car park at The Grapes on the way home.
The old car's filler is where your hand goes — but a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That's a second factor: a new motor.
Third, the spout goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in as readily, and after the pour starts, nothing stops it. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Stowlawn or out in Green Lanes.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Check these before pouring, on a forecourt around Stowlawn or a drive out in Moseley Village. A few seconds, that's all.
- Read the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue ones are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually aren't.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of motors, the AdBlue one.
- Look inside the fuel flap: many motors have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler sits if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you 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 at Willenhall.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
On the day the light comes on — anywhere it is in West Midlands — a simple routine to follow.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Langdale Drive.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap works — once you've found the filler and read the cap.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where the two share a flap, confirm it is shut before lifting the bottle.
- Stop when that tank fills or the bottle runs dry; until then, tip slowly using its own spout.
- Only after that, start your car: close the cap, check again, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Find at stage two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? Then stop right there. Leave out stage five altogether.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Stowlawn?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your engine. Keep the ignition off too, because on plenty of diesels switching it on alone starts your fuel pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is drawn from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
The attendants at Shell, Esso or any forecourt will usually help to push the car away if asked. Your own drive around Stowlawn is the place it should stay.
Already run? Stop once it is safe, then turn off. On the M6, under 3 miles from Stowlawn, that means the next junction. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Stowlawn is smaller a job than a trip of under 3 miles to Wolverhampton, and so say.
Our arrival in Stowlawn, and what takes place next
Anywhere your car has stopped, whether outside Villiers Primary School, near Bilston Castle Mound or at home, our van comes to it. Both the work and the quote rest on three replies — what fluid, what quantity, and whether it's run — so we ask. You hear that quote on the phone, before anybody sets off.
Then your tank is cleared and the system rinsed thoroughly. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and neither washes away by itself. That is why it matters more. After the fuel filter is flushed — or renewed, if needed — fresh diesel goes in, and then the car is tested. Before we leave, our engineers start it and confirm that it's running properly.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour once our engineers arrive, provided the motor has not run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a live forecourt and quiet at night outside a house. The insurer will ask for the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours once this job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Stowlawn and where it is
Stowlawn is a suburban area located near Wolverhampton in the West Midlands, sitting at an elevation of 133 metres. Stowlawn is characterized by its semi-detached housing and is situated close to nearby places such as Green Lanes, Bunkers Hill, and Portobello. Stowlawn is a relatively small community with a population of around 8001 people, and is approximately 2.3 miles from Wolverhampton city centre. Stowlawn is also about 111 miles northwest of London.
AdBlue drains across West Midlands, Stowlawn included
As a residential suburb, Stowlawn shares its vans surrounding places — Bunkers Hill, Portobello — right across WV postcodes and the wider area around them. Fastest of all: quote a WV14 6 postcode for our van.
The car stays where it is. We drain it where it is — a side street close to Peascroft Fever Hospital, a lay-by on the way to Black Country Millennium Forest, a drive. Tricky to pin down, like the back of Gurdwara Bada Wadbhag Singh? By a county line? Checking is better than assuming, and so phone.
In short, for Stowlawn drivers
First, the cap; then, the tip. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will empty it where it stands, wherever across West Midlands: switch it off then phone 0333 366 0103.