Trentham: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Leave your engine and ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Usually, if your engine has not turned, it's drained and fully purged where the car is in Trentham. The remainder of this page explains why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't — handy if you're reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Diesel feeds your motor — but many current diesels driven about Trentham and Newstead hold another fluid as well. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust gas and cleans it.
There's a filler on every tank. Under one flap, side by side: that is the arrangement on many motors. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. The diesel side is filled at the petrol pump all the time. Rarely filled, AdBlue usually comes from a bottle, poured by someone who must stop and think what filler to use. It is in the gap that the mistake lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank occur in Trentham?
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
On a drive off Longton Road before work, or in the car park at The Man in Space heading home: that's where the hurried top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low your car warns you, and once it's empty, limp mode kicks in.
Unfamiliar vehicles come second, too. Rentals, new vehicles and company vehicles put their fillers differently, and the hand goes for the cap it used on the old one.
Nothing halts the tip after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it occurs in Hem Heath or the middle of Trentham, it is the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Tittensor or a forecourt around Trentham, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Position misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally do not.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Look inside your fuel flap: many motors carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- Cannot see it beside your diesel filler? Then look below the bonnet or inside your boot — the owner's manual says where.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Wedgwood.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
When the light comes on, wherever across Staffordshire, follow this routine.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Deansway.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- The two behind a single flap? Then confirm the cap on your diesel side is still closed before lifting the bottle.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, and check again — confirm your diesel cap remained shut the whole time. After that, start the vehicle.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Skip step five altogether.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Trentham?
Brief list, then. Top of that: your motor stays unstarted. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch the car on. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — BP, Esso or another — the attendants will usually help roll your car clear, when you ask. Your own driveway in Trentham is where it should stay.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your engine has already run. On the M6, under 3 miles from Trentham, that means the next exit. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Trentham is less work than a run of under 5 miles to Stoke-on-Trent, and so tell us.
Our arrival around Trentham, and what occurs next
Outside Ash Green Primary Academy, close to Trentham Methodist Church or on your own driveway: wherever the car has stopped, our engineers come to it. We ask what got in, about how much, and if it has run, since the replies decide the work and our price. On the phone call itself, you are told our price — before dispatch.
The fuel system is then cleaned thoroughly, once the tank is cleared. Much more than with petrol, it counts here: crystals build up, some metals corrode, and none of it clears away unaided, however long it sits. The filter cleaned or, if it must be, replaced; fresh diesel in; then a test of your car. The motor is started next and checked to make sure it runs correctly, all before our technicians head off.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour after our engineers get there, provided your engine hasn't run — and the pumps we use are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet after dark beside a house. Your insurer will ask for the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both once the job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Trentham
Trentham is a suburban area in Staffordshire, situated on the River Trent at an elevation of 111 metres, with Stoke-on-Trent just 3.9 miles away. Trentham has a mix of housing types, but detached homes are predominant, and the area is close to nearby places like Hem Heath and Hanford. Trentham is located in the West Midlands region, approximately 133.2 miles from London. Trentham's riverside setting contributes to its character as a residential area.
AdBlue drains round Trentham, and Staffordshire beyond
Hanford and Sideway are among the places around Trentham, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, over ST postcodes. A postcode starting ST4 8 gets the van to you fastest.
The vehicle doesn't need to move. We drain it where it is — a side street close to Trentham Scout Group, a lay-by on the way to Baltic Close Playground, a driveway. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Trentham War Memorial, ring and ask instead of assuming.
The short version for Trentham motorists
Tip no AdBlue until you have read the cap. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it wherever it stands, anywhere around Staffordshire: keep the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103.