AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Summer Hill: Why It Occurs and How to Stop It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and your ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103. Usually, if your engine hasn't turned, it's drained and fully rinsed where your vehicle is in Summer Hill. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Many modern diesels on the roads around Summer Hill and Gospel Oak carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Every tank comes with a filler of its own. 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. Topping up the diesel side at the pump goes on constantly. The AdBlue side is topped up far less often, usually from a bottle, and normally by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. Mistakes happen in the gap between them.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Summer Hill: how it occurs
Carelessness seldom causes it. Instead is three things coming up at once.
On a drive off Ridgeway Road before work, or in the car park outside The Sportsman heading home: that's where the hurried top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and once it's empty, limp mode kicks in.
Then your car is unfamiliar. 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 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. It takes seconds, whether out in Tibbington or right in the heart of Summer Hill.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Check these first, at a forecourt around Summer Hill or a driveway out in Bloomfield. Seconds, no more.
- Check the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue ones are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually aren't.
- On plenty of vehicles, size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on many cars. Look for it.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler sits if it is not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Tipton? Ask the person who drove the vehicle last before leaving, rather than when the light goes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in West Midlands that is.
- Switch off once parked — flat ground, motor stopped, and never rushed by Eastfield Road on the verge.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you've found the filler and read it.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Stage five is out.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Summer Hill already?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with no starting your engine. Don't switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Topping up with diesel won't thin it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of the tank, just where fuel is drawn from.
On a forecourt — Asda, Esso or another — the staff will normally help push your car clear, if you ask. On your own drive in Summer Hill? So the vehicle stays put.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Summer Hill lies under 3 miles from the M6; on it, take the next exit. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Wolverhampton, under 5 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Summer Hill.
When we get there around Summer Hill, what occurs?
Wherever your car has stopped, be it outside Glebefields Primary School, beside Blue Plaque: Sir Alfred Hickman or at home, the van travels to it. We ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether it's run, since those answers decide the work and our quote. During the phone call itself, you are told our quote — ahead of anything else.
Your system is then rinsed thoroughly, once your tank is emptied. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and none of it clears away unaided. That is why it matters more. Testing comes at the end: before that, clean diesel goes in, and the fuel filter is flushed or changed as needed. We don't leave until it has been fired up and is running smoothly.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour once we arrive, provided your motor hasn't run — and the pumps our engineers use are fine on a busy forecourt yet quiet at night beside a house. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork an insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. It's worth checking your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Summer Hill itself
Summer Hill is a suburban area located in the West Midlands, approximately 4.4 miles from Wolverhampton. Summer Hill sits inland at an elevation of around 143 metres, with a mix of semi-detached housing and local amenities. Summer Hill is situated near other residential areas, including Tibbington, Wednesbury Oak, and Princes End, and is about 108.8 miles northwest of London.
AdBlue drains about Summer Hill, and West Midlands beyond
Summer Hill is a residential suburb, and the teams that cover it also work the places near it, Wednesbury Oak and Princes End among them, across the DY postcode area. A postcode starting DY4 0 gets our van to you fastest.
No need to move your car. Anywhere it stands — beside Blue Plaque: Margaret MacDonald, in a layby en route to The Railer, at home — that's where it gets emptied. Tricky to pin down, like the back of Glebefields Library? By a county line? Asking beats guessing, and so ring.
In short, for Summer Hill people
Tip no AdBlue till you have read the cap. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will empty it wherever it stands, anywhere in West Midlands: switch the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103.