The Coppice: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and your ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, done just where your vehicle stands around The Coppice, is normally all it takes when caught before the motor runs. Nothing happened yet? Below, the page covers the reasons it occurs and the how to prevent it for good.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
No single fluid but two: that's what many modern diesels around The Coppice and Upper Ettingshall carry, with diesel feeding your engine. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust stream and cleans it.
Each tank has its own filler. Plenty of motors share a single flap for both, while some put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, the diesel side is topped up all the time. Much less regularly, the AdBlue side gets topped up — mostly from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. It is in the gap that the error happens.
The Coppice: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
It is hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the car, and running dry means limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Corfe Road, or at The Hurst Hill on the way home that evening.
Then the car is new. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand hits for the cap it would have 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, and so nothing stops the pour once it has started. Whether it happens in Hurst Hill or the middle of The Coppice, it's the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A few seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you tip anything, on a drive in Bramford or a forecourt in The Coppice.
- Check the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally aren't.
- Plenty of motors give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Check inside your fuel flap: many vehicles carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows which it is if your filler isn't next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Coseley? Ask whoever drove it last before leaving, not once the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
On the day the warning appears — anywhere you are around West Midlands — a simple routine to follow.
- Stop somewhere level, motor off, with time in hand — not rushing on the side of Bourne Street.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- The two behind one flap? So confirm the cap on the diesel side stays shut before lifting the bottle.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Skip stage five entirely.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around The Coppice?
The short order of things, starting with no starting your engine. Leave the ignition off as well, because on plenty of diesels switching it on by itself runs the pump. Filling up with diesel won't weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the bottom of that tank, right where the fuel is taken from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it's the BP or the Shell, ask the staff to help push the car clear of the petrol pump. If you're on your own drive around The Coppice, leave the car where it is.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. The next exit is where to come off when you are on the M6, under 5 miles from The Coppice. About how far did it go? Crossing The Coppice is smaller a job than a run of under 5 miles to Wolverhampton, so say.
Our arrival in The Coppice, and what occurs next
The van reaches the car wherever it has come to rest — your own driveway, beside St Mary's, or by Hurst Hill Primary School. The replies decide the work and the price, and so our engineers ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether it has run. Nobody sets off before you have heard the price by phone.
Next: draining, then a full flush of the whole system. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Then our technicians fire it up and check it runs properly before leaving.
With pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where the motor has not run take about half an hour after our engineers are there. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is part of many insurance policies — so use the wait to look at yours.
About The Coppice, briefly
The Coppice is a suburban area located near Wolverhampton in the West Midlands, sitting at an elevation of 187 metres. The Coppice is characterized by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock, which is typical of many suburban areas in the region. The Coppice is situated close to other nearby places, including Hurst Hill, Swan Village, and Roseville, and is approximately 3.4 miles from Wolverhampton city centre. The Coppice has a population of around 5791 residents.
AdBlue drains around The Coppice and across West Midlands
Swan Village and Roseville are among the places around The Coppice, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, over WV postcodes. A postcode starting WV14 9 gets the van to you fastest.
Moving the vehicle isn't needed. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street close to St Chad's Church, a lay-by on the way to Black Country Millennium Forest, a drive. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Coseley War Memorial.
The Coppice drivers: the short version
Tip nothing until you've read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave the car off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it sits, anywhere around West Midlands.