--- title: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank The Wharf: Explained canonical: https://www.petrolinadieselcar.co.uk/adblue-in-diesel/the-wharf-staffordshire/ location: The Wharf county: Staffordshire latitude: 52.903410 longitude: -1.866690 service: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank updated: 2026-10-08 --- # The Wharf: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It? If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and the ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. Around The Wharf, catching it before your motor turns usually means draining and a full flush on the spot. The rest of this page covers why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't — handy if you're reading ahead of time. ## AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers Diesel goes to your motor — yet plenty of modern diesels driven round The Wharf and Balance Hill hold another liquid too. The exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the fumes to fresh it, from its own tank. Each tank has its own filler. Plenty of cars share a single flap for both, whereas some move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled on every forecourt call-out, week in, week out. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less often, normally from a bottle, and usually by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. Mistakes happen in that gap between them. ## AdBlue in your diesel tank around The Wharf: how it happens It is seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up. On a drive off Park Street before work, or in the car park at The Smithfield Hotel on the way home: that's where the rushed top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the vehicle warns you, and if it is empty, limp mode follows. Then, the hand goes for the cap it knew on the old car — since a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one didn't. And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the pour once it has started. The Heath or the heart of The Wharf: it takes the same few seconds either way. ## The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Spath or a forecourt around The Wharf, check these. They take a few seconds. - Read the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally aren't. - The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two. - Look inside the fuel flap: plenty of vehicles have a label there saying which fuel goes where. - In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler sits if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook says which. - Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Uttoxeter? Ask whoever drove it last before you set off, rather than once the light goes on. ## Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank Wherever around Staffordshire the light comes on, here is a routine for the day. - Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Park place. - Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap works — after you have located your filler and read it. - The two under one flap? So make sure the lid on the diesel filler is still shut ahead of lifting the bottle. - Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty. - Only then, start the car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Spot at stage two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? So stop just there. Do not go on to step five. ## The Wharf: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank? Brief list, then. First: your engine stays off. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch the car on. Topping up with diesel will not dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the bottom of the tank, right where fuel is taken from. Ask the attendants to help push the car away from the pump if you are at a forecourt — the Tesco, the Esso or somewhere else. On your own drive around The Wharf? So the car stays put. When the motor has run already, pull over safely then turn the car off. On the M6, under 15 miles from The Wharf, that means the next exit. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across The Wharf is smaller work than a trip of under 25 miles towards Stoke-on-Trent, so tell us. ## The Wharf: what happens when our engineers turn up Wherever the car has stopped, whether by St Joseph's Catholic Primary School, beside Uttoxeter Pentecostal Church or on your own drive, our van comes to it. Both the work and the quote depend on three answers — which liquid, which quantity, and if it has run — so we ask. You hear that price by phone, before anybody sets off. Then the tank is drained and your system flushed thoroughly. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and neither washes away by itself. That is why it counts more. A test is at the end: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and the fuel filter is flushed or replaced as needed. We don't go until it has been started and is running properly. Unrun cars usually mean a half-hour job from arrival. The equipment is safe on a busy filling station, and quiet enough for a driveway late at night. Your insurer will ask for the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies — and so use the wait to look at yours. ## About The Wharf, for a moment The Wharf is a suburban area in Staffordshire, situated inland at an elevation of 88 metres, approximately 15 miles from Stoke-on-Trent. The Wharf is characterized by its semi-detached housing stock, which dominates the local landscape. The Wharf is close to nearby places such as The Heath and Uttoxeter, and is about 121 miles northwest of London. ## AdBlue drains across Staffordshire, The Wharf included Throughout ST postcodes, the teams that cover The Wharf — a residential suburb — work the surrounding places too, Mount Pleasant and Uttoxeter among them. Quote a postcode that starts ST14 7, and the van arrives quickest. No need to shift your car. The drain takes place right there, be it a drive, a road by Uttoxeter Library, or a lay-by towards Pennycroft Community Park. Guessing doesn't help behind Uttoxeter Methodist Church, on a border, or anywhere hard to describe; ring and ask. ## The short version for The Wharf motorists First, the cap; then, the tip. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave it off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it stands, anywhere in Staffordshire.