AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Town Park: How It Happens and How to Prevent It
Pause here for a moment if your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before your motor runs, it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Town Park. The rest of this page explains why it happens and how to ensure it does not — handy if you're reading before it has happened.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
No single liquid but two: that is how plenty of newer diesels around Town Park and Brookside run, with diesel feeding your motor. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, side by side: that is the layout on a lot of vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. Filling your diesel side at the pump goes on constantly. Far less frequently, the AdBlue side gets filled — normally from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. The mistake grows in that gap between them.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs around Town Park
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
Hurry follows from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a drive off Grange Farm View, or on the way home in the car park outside Rose and Crown.
Then your car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new vehicle 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.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the pour after it has started. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Town Park or out in Stirchley.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A couple of seconds is all these take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a drive in Aqueduct or a forecourt in Town Park.
- Check the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually aren't.
- Many cars fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Look inside your fuel flap: many vehicles carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler sits if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Telford Central, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Shropshire that is.
- Switch off once parked — level ground, motor off, and never rushed by Northwood Terrace on the verge.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap works — once you've located the filler and read it.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Only then, start the vehicle: close the cap, check once more, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Never carry on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Town Park?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with no starting the motor. Keep your ignition off too, since on many diesels it by itself runs the pump. Thinning it with extra diesel won't work, since AdBlue settles to the bottom rather than mixing — and that is where the fuel is sucked from.
On a forecourt — Shell, Asda or any other — the attendants will normally help push your car away, if you ask. Your own drive around Town Park is where it stays.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your engine has already run. The next junction is where to come off if you are on the M54, under 3 miles from Town Park. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Town Park is less a job than a run of under 15 miles towards Wolverhampton, and so tell us.
What happens when our technicians turn up in Town Park
Our engineers come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Randlay Primary School, near St James Church or on your own drive. Both the work and the quote rest on three replies — which fluid, what quantity, and whether it has run — so we ask. No one heads out until you have had the quote over the phone.
Next: a drain, then a full flush of the whole system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and neither clears out by itself. That is why it matters more. Testing is at the end: before that, fresh diesel is added, and the filter is flushed or replaced if necessary. The motor is fired up next and checked to confirm it runs properly, all before our engineers leave.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour once our technicians arrive, provided your motor hasn't run — and the pumps we use are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet after dark beside a house. Your insurer usually wants an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. It is worth checking your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Town Park, briefly
Town Park is a suburban area in Shropshire, situated inland at an elevation of 127 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Town Park is located near several other places, including Stirchley, Hinkshay, and Randlay, and is approximately 14 miles from Wolverhampton. Town Park has a population of around 3664 residents, and its proximity to Wolverhampton makes it a commuter-friendly location. Town Park is also relatively close to the West Midlands region's major cities, while still being 126 miles from London.
AdBlue drains round Town Park, and Shropshire beyond
Over TF postcodes, the vans that cover Town Park — a residential suburb — work the surrounding locations too, Randlay and Hinkshay among them. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting TF3 1.
Your car remains put. Wherever it sits — near Randlay Community Centre, on a layby heading to Grangepool Park, at home — that's where it gets drained. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you're near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Exotic Zoo Wildlife Park.
For Town Park people, the short version
Read the cap before you tip. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Keep the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, across Shropshire.