AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Tipton: How It Happens and How to Prevent It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and your ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, done right where the car sits around Tipton, is usually all it needs if found before the motor runs. Here before the event? Then the rest explains why it comes about and how to stop it happening at all.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Many newer diesels around Golds Green, as well as Tipton, run on two liquids; your motor takes just the diesel. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There's a filler on each tank. Other vehicles keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others have both together behind one flap. At the pump, your diesel side gets filled constantly. The AdBlue side is topped up far less commonly, normally from a bottle, and usually by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the mistake lives.
Tipton: how AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
On a driveway off Toll End Road before work, or in the car park at Waggon & Horses on the way home: that is where the rushed top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low the vehicle warns you, and if it's empty, limp mode kicks in.
Then, your hand goes for the cap it knew on the old vehicle — since a rental car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where 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 tip after it has started. Whether it takes place in Ocker Hill or the middle of Tipton, 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 run through them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Great Bridge or a forecourt in Tipton.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue caps are often blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually do not.
- On plenty of cars, size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Check inside your fuel flap: plenty of vehicles carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- Cannot see it next to your diesel filler? Then look beneath the bonnet or inside the boot — the handbook will say where.
- The previous driver will know. Ask when you collect a hire car or fleet car — from Dudley Port's car park, perhaps — rather than once the warning appears.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
Anywhere around West Midlands the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Pull in on level, engine off, with time in hand — not hurried on the side of Gilson Street.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, yes, but it works.
- Both under one flap? Then make sure the cap on the diesel filler is still shut ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Finish when the tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; before that, pour slowly using the built-in spout.
- Before starting your car, shut the cap and check a second time that the diesel cap was never opened off.
Find at stage two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? Then stop right there. Never carry on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Tipton?
Do not start your motor: that is how the short order of things begins. Keep your ignition off as well, since on many diesels it alone runs your fuel pump. Thinning it with more diesel won't work, because AdBlue settles to the base instead of blending — and that is where your fuel is pulled from.
At a forecourt — Esso, City Fuels (HGV Only) or another — the attendants will usually help push the car clear, when you ask. Your own drive in Tipton is the place it should stay.
When the engine has been run by now, stop somewhere safe then switch the car off. Tipton sits under 3 miles from the M6; on it, use the next junction. A short hop across Tipton is a smaller job than a run towards Wolverhampton, under 5 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
Tipton: what happens when we arrive
By Ocker Hill Infant School, near St Mark or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, we come to it. Both the work and the price rest on three answers — what liquid, what quantity, and whether it has run — so our technicians ask. The price is given on the call, before any van leaves.
Next: a drain, then a thorough flush of the whole system. More than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: crystals form, some metals are attacked, and none of that washes out on its own, however long it sits. After the fuel filter is cleaned — or renewed, where required — fresh diesel is added, and then the car is tested. The motor is fired up next and tested to make sure it runs correctly, all before we go.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour once our technicians arrive, provided your motor has not run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a live forecourt and quiet after dark outside a house. The insurer will ask for an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Tipton and where it is
Tipton is a town in the West Midlands, situated on the banks of the River Black Country, near the city of Wolverhampton. Tipton has a mix of industrial and residential areas, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type, and is located at an elevation of around 133 metres. Tipton is close to several nearby places, including Ocker Hill, Toll End, and Golds Hill, and is about 108 miles northwest of London.
AdBlue drains round Tipton, and West Midlands beyond
Tipton is a riverside town, and the vans that cover it also work the places near it, Toll End and Golds Hill among them, across the DY postcode area. Quote a postcode beginning DY4 0, and our van arrives fastest.
Your car remains put. Wherever it sits — beside Toll End Methodist Church, in a layby en route to Black Country Millennium Forest, at home — that is where it gets cleared. Guessing doesn't help at the back of Jubilee Park Community Centre, on a border, or anywhere hard to pin down; ring and check.
Tipton drivers: the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere around West Midlands, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless — so leave the car off and phone 0333 366 0103.