Tilehouse Green: 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 the motor and the ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, done just where your vehicle sits around Tilehouse Green, is usually all it takes if caught before your motor runs. Here before the event? In that case what follows covers why it comes about and how to stop it ever happening.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Plenty of modern diesels on the roads about Tilehouse Green and Rotten Row carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Some motors put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others have the two side by side under one flap. At the petrol pump, your diesel side is topped up constantly. Seldom filled, AdBlue usually comes out of a bottle, poured by someone who must stop and think which cap to use. It's in the gap that the mistake lives.
Tilehouse Green: how AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs
It is seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from the car, and letting it run out means limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Purnells Way, or at The Red Lion on the way home after work.
New-to-you cars are second, too. Hire cars, new cars and company cars place their fillers in new places, and habit reaches for the cap used on the old one.
Lastly, the spout fits: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in as readily, and after the tip begins, nothing halts it. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Tilehouse Green or out in Knowle Grove.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Whether a Tilehouse Green forecourt or a drive over in Dorridge, spend a couple of seconds over these before any goes in.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones are often blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally don't.
- On many motors, size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside your fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on many vehicles. Check for it.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler sits if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Dorridge.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across West Midlands that is.
- Switch off once parked — flat ground, motor stopped, and not in a rush beside Station Road at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- Leave the 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, then look once more — confirm the diesel filler remained shut throughout. After that, start your car.
Find during the second or third step that AdBlue went into the diesel filler? That is where you stop. Don't go on to step five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Tilehouse Green?
The short order of things, starting with not starting the motor. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels the moment your ignition is switched on — and so leave it off. Topping up with diesel won't dilute it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of your tank, just where the fuel is taken from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it's the Esso or the Sainsbury's, ask the attendants to help roll your car away from the pump. Your own drive around Tilehouse Green is where it should stay.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the motor has already run. On the M42, under 3 miles from Tilehouse Green, that means the next exit. Distance matters — a short hop across Tilehouse Green makes a smaller job than driving under 10 miles towards Birmingham — so tell us roughly how far it went.
Our arrival in Tilehouse Green, and what takes place next
We come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside St George and St Teresa Catholic Primary School, close to Knowle United Reformed Church or on your own driveway. Both the work and the price rest on three answers — what liquid, what amount, and whether it has run — so we ask. No one heads out before you have heard our quote over the phone.
After that: a drain, then a full flush of the entire system. Much more than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: crystals form, certain metals corrode, and nothing clears away on its own, no matter how long it sits. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Then our engineers fire it up and confirm it runs smoothly before we go.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour once our engineers arrive, provided the motor has not run — and the pumps we use are safe on a live forecourt and quiet after dark beside a house. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork your insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Wrong-fuel cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — so use the wait to check yours.
About Tilehouse Green
Tilehouse Green is a suburban area in the West Midlands, situated near the River Blythe and characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock. Tilehouse Green sits at an elevation of around 133 metres, with nearby settlements including Knowle Grove and Knowle. Tilehouse Green is located approximately 9.5 miles southwest of Birmingham, making it a commuter base for the city. Tilehouse Green has a population of around 3684 residents, according to recent estimates.
AdBlue drains across West Midlands, Tilehouse Green included
Throughout B postcodes, the teams that cover Tilehouse Green — a residential suburb — work the surrounding places too, Bentley Heath and Knowle included. Fastest of all: quote a B93 0 postcode to the van.
Moving your car isn't necessary. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Knowle Park, a side street near Knowle Village Hall: we drain the car where it sits. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Downing Hall, ring and ask instead of assuming.
Tilehouse Green drivers: the short version
Tip nothing till you have read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave the vehicle off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere across West Midlands.