How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Townsend
Keep the motor and ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. A drain and a full flush, carried out right where the car sits in Townsend, is normally all it takes if caught before the motor runs. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Many modern diesels on the roads around Townsend and Northwood carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, where a spray treats the fumes.
Each tank has its own filler. Plenty of vehicles have a single flap for both, whereas some put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Topping up your diesel side at the petrol pump happens constantly. Rarely topped up, AdBlue normally comes out of a bottle, tipped by someone who has to stop and think which cap to use. It is in the gap that the error happens.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Townsend: how it happens
Carelessness seldom causes it. What does is three things coming up at once.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Guy Street before work, or in the car park at Trent Tavern on the way home.
Then your car is strange. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the 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, so nothing stops the tip once it has started. Bucknall or the heart of Townsend: it takes the same few seconds either way.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Birches Head or a forecourt around Townsend, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually is not. Read it rather than going by position.
- On many cars, the size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Look inside your fuel flap: plenty of motors carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- Cannot find it beside your diesel filler? Then look beneath the bonnet or in the boot — the owner's manual will say where.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Stoke-On-Trent, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
Wherever around Staffordshire the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Turn off after you park — flat ground, motor stopped, and not rushed beside Corneville Road on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew it. It sounds daft. It works.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Finish once your tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; until then, tip gently using its built-in spout.
- Before you start your car, close the cap and check again that the diesel cap was never opened off.
Discover during the second or third stage that the bottle went into the diesel tank? That's where you stop. Skip step five altogether.
Townsend: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Don't start the engine: that's where the short order of things begins. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch the vehicle on. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is sucked from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it's the Esso or the Gulf, ask the attendants to help roll the vehicle away from the pump. At home in Townsend? Then the car stays put.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the motor has already run. Come off the M6 — under 5 miles out of Townsend — at the first junction. Distance matters — a short hop across Townsend is a smaller job than driving under 3 miles towards Stoke-on-Trent — so say roughly how far it went.
Townsend: what happens when our technicians get there
By Kingsland CofE Academy, close to Bucknall Methodist Church or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, we come to it. Both the work and the quote depend on three replies — what liquid, which amount, and if it's run — so our technicians ask. The quote is given on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
Your system is then purged thoroughly, once your tank is cleared. More than with petrol, it matters here: crystals form, certain metals are attacked, and none of it washes out unaided, however long it sits. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. The engine is started next and tested to be sure it runs smoothly, all before our technicians go.
With pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your motor hasn't run need roughly half an hour after our technicians are there. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork an insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Wrong-fuel cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Townsend
Townsend is a suburban area in Staffordshire, situated on the outskirts of Stoke-on-Trent, near the River Trent. Townsend sits at an elevation of 139 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Townsend is close to nearby places such as Bucknall, Abbey Hulton, and Bentilee, and is approximately 1.5 miles from Stoke-on-Trent city centre. Townsend has a population of around 6784 residents.
AdBlue drains across Staffordshire, Townsend included
Townsend is a residential suburb, and the vans that cover it also work the places around it, Abbey Hulton and Bentilee among them, across the ST postcode area. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting ST2 9.
The car stays where it is. Anywhere it stands — near St Mary, in a layby heading to Hulton Abbey Park, on a drive — that is where it is drained. Tricky to pin down, like the back of Marychurch Centre & Parish Office? Close to a border? Checking is better than assuming, and so phone.
Townsend drivers: the short version
Read the cap before you pour. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Leave the vehicle off then call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, across Staffordshire.