Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in The Vines: Why It Occurs
Leave your motor and ignition off and call 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Normally, if the motor hasn't turned, it's emptied and fully rinsed where the car is in The Vines. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Plenty of newer diesels in Newtown, like those in The Vines, run on two fluids; your motor gets just the diesel. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Other motors keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others place both together under one flap. Diesel goes in at each filling station call-out, again and again. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less commonly. The mistake grows in the gap between them.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place around The Vines
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from your car, and letting it run out leads to limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Rickett's Lane, or at The Harry Fox on the way home after work.
Then your car 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.
Lastly, the spout fits: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in just as readily, and once the pour begins, nothing stops it. Droitwich Spa or the heart of The Vines: it takes the same few seconds in both.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Whether a The Vines forecourt or a drive out in Westacre, take a couple of seconds over these before any goes in.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- Many motors fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Look inside your fuel flap: plenty of vehicles have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- Can't see it next to the diesel filler? In that case check below the bonnet or inside the boot — the handbook says where.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at Droitwich Spa, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Worcestershire that is.
- Turn off after you park — level ground, motor stopped, and not rushed by Chorley Road on the verge.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap works — once you've located the filler and read it.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave it on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the vehicle, shut the cap and check again that the diesel cap never came off.
Find at the second or third stage that the bottle went into the wrong filler? That is where you stop. Step five stays off limits.
The Vines: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Don't start your engine: that's how the short order of things starts. Leave the ignition off as well, because on plenty of diesels it alone starts your fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it is the Valero or the Sainsbury's, ask the staff to help push your car away from the petrol pump. If you are on your own driveway around The Vines, leave the vehicle where it is.
Already run? Pull over once it's safe, then switch off. The Vines sits under a mile from the M5; there, use the next exit. About how far did it go? Crossing The Vines is less work than a run of under 10 miles towards Worcester, and so say.
What happens when our engineers arrive around The Vines
The van reaches your car wherever it has come to rest — your own driveway, near St Andrew, or outside St Peter's Droitwich CofE Academy. Both the work and the price rest on three replies — which fluid, what quantity, and if it's run — so our engineers ask. During the phone call itself, you hear our quote — before anything else.
Next: draining, then a thorough flush of the whole system. More than with petrol, it counts here: the crystals build up, certain metals corrode, and nothing clears out unaided, however long it sits. A test is at the end: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and the filter is cleaned or changed if necessary. We do not go until it has been started and is running smoothly.
If the engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents your insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Before we get there, have a look at your insurance documents; many include cover for misfuelling.
About The Vines, for a moment
The Vines is a suburban area located on the riverside in Worcestershire, with a relatively low elevation of 31 metres. The Vines sits near the city of Worcester, approximately 6 miles away, and is also close to other nearby places such as Droitwich Spa and Netherwich. The Vines is predominantly composed of flat housing, which is typical of many suburban areas in the West Midlands region. The Vines is situated about 101 miles west of London, making it a relatively accessible location.
AdBlue drains across Worcestershire, The Vines included
The Vines is a residential suburb, and our teams that cover it also work the places near it, Netherwich and Hill End among them, across the WR postcode area. Quote a postcode beginning WR9 8, and our van gets there fastest.
Moving the car is not needed. The drain happens right there, be it a driveway, a road near Norbury Theatre & Cinema, or a lay-by towards Vines Park. Tricky to pin down, like the back of Tile Mosaic? By a border? Asking is better than assuming, so ring.
The short version for The Vines drivers
Before you tip, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway, leave the vehicle off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it waits, anywhere across Worcestershire.