The Down: 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 your motor and your ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, done right where the vehicle stands around The Down, is normally all it needs if caught before your motor runs. The rest of this page covers why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't — useful if you're reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Many current diesels on the roads about The Down and Oldfield carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Many of cars have a single flap for both, whereas others move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is filled at the petrol pump all the time. Much less regularly, the AdBlue side gets filled — mostly from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. That gap is where the mistake lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank occur around The Down?
Carelessness seldom explains it. What does is three things coming up together.
On a drive off Milfields Way before work, or in the car park at the pub in the village heading home: that is where the rushed top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the vehicle warns you, and once it is gone, limp mode kicks in.
Then, the hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old car — since a rental car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
Nothing stops the pour after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Defford or the middle of The Down: it is the same few seconds either way.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Underton or a forecourt around The Down, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps are often blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally do not.
- On plenty of vehicles, the size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Look inside the fuel flap: plenty of motors carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by your diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at Shifnal, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
Anywhere around Shropshire the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Turn off after you park — level ground, engine off, and never in a rush beside Grigg's Lane at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Only after that, start your car: close the cap, check again, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Discover during the second or third step that the bottle went in the wrong tank? That is where you stop. Never go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around The Down?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your engine. Keep the ignition off as well, since on many diesels it by itself starts your pump. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is sucked from.
Ask the staff to help roll your car away from the petrol pump if you're at a forecourt — the Esso, the Shell or anywhere else. At home in The Down? So the car stays put.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your motor has already run. Leave the M54 — under 15 miles out of The Down — at the next exit. A short hop across The Down is a smaller job than a run towards Wolverhampton, under 25 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
Our arrival in The Down, and what takes place next
Wherever your car came to rest, be it by Castlefields Primary School, beside St Giles or on your own drive, our van comes to it. What liquid went in, the quantity, and whether it ran: we ask because the answers set the work and price. You hear that price on the phone, before anybody sets off.
Emptying the tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the system. With AdBlue that counts 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. After the fuel filter has been cleaned — or renewed, where needed — fresh diesel goes in, and then the car gets tested. The motor is fired up next and tested to make sure it runs correctly, all before our technicians head off.
Unstarted vehicles usually need a half-hour visit after arrival. The equipment is fine on a busy forecourt, and quiet enough for a residential street after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to check yours.
About The Down and where it is
The Down is a locality in Shropshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 137 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. The Down lies approximately 15 miles from Wolverhampton and 121 miles from London, making it a relatively rural area within the West Midlands region. The Down is surrounded by other small places, including Defford, Eudon Burnell, and Eudon George, and has a population of around 579 residents. The Down benefits from its scenic riverside setting, which adds to its appeal as a residential area.
The Down and Shropshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Over WV postcodes, the vans that cover The Down — a small village — work the nearby locations too, Eudon George and Eudon Burnell among them. Quickest of all: quote a WV16 6 postcode for the van.
Your car does not need to shift. The drain happens on the spot, whether a driveway, a road by St John the Baptist, or a lay-by on the way to Harpswood Rough. Guessing doesn't help at the back of St Bartholomew, close to a boundary, or anywhere hard to pin down; phone and check.
The short version for The Down drivers
Pour no AdBlue till you've read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere in Shropshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — and so leave the car off and ring 0333 366 0103.