How It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Tunnel Hill
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then put this page down a moment, keep the ignition and motor off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Around Tunnel Hill, finding it before your motor turns usually means a drain and a thorough flush on the spot. The rest of this page covers why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't — handy if you are reading before it has happened.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Not one liquid but two: that is how plenty of modern diesels around Tunnel Hill and Longdon Heath carry, with diesel for your engine. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There's a filler for each tank. Plenty of cars have a single flap for the two, whereas others move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Filling your diesel side at the petrol pump happens constantly. Rarely filled, AdBlue usually goes in from a bottle, poured by someone who has to stop and think which cap to use. The mistake grows in that gap between the two.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place in Tunnel Hill
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
Haste comes from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a drive off Old Orchard, or on the way home in the car park at The Little Upton Muggery.
Next, the hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old vehicle — since a rental car, a new motor or a company car places the fillers where your last one did not.
Lastly, the bottle goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in just as readily, and once the tip begins, no part halts it. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Tunnel Hill or out in Newbridge Green.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Upper Ham or a forecourt in Tunnel Hill, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Go by the cap, not its position.
- On plenty of vehicles, size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Check for it.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by the diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Great Malvern.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Worcestershire that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Greenfields Road, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park then switch off first.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, yes, yet it works.
- Both behind one flap? So make sure the lid on your diesel side is still closed before lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Stage five is out.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Tunnel Hill already?
Short order, then. First: your motor stays unstarted. Don't switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Thinning it with extra diesel fails, because AdBlue sinks to the base instead of mixing — and that is where the fuel is drawn from.
The attendants at Warners, John Pane's Regal Garage or any forecourt will usually lend a hand to push the vehicle clear if asked. If you are on your own drive around Tunnel Hill, leave the vehicle where it is.
Already run? Pull over when it is sensible, then turn off. Tunnel Hill sits under 3 miles from the M50; on it, use the first junction. A short hop across Tunnel Hill is a smaller job than a run towards Worcester, under 10 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
What occurs when our engineers arrive around Tunnel Hill
Our van comes to the car wherever it has come to rest — your own drive, near The Upton Hill Community Centre, or outside Upton-Upon-Severn CofE Primary and Pre School. Those replies decide this work and the price, and so our technicians ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it's run. The quote is given over the phone, before any van leaves.
Draining the tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the fuel system. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. We do not leave until it has been fired up and is running smoothly.
Unstarted cars mostly need a half-hour job after arrival. The kit is safe on a live filling station, and hushed enough for a residential street late at night. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork your insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Wrong-fuel cover is included in many insurance policies — so use the wait to look at yours.
About Tunnel Hill
Tunnel Hill is a small suburban area situated on the riverside in Worcestershire, with a relatively low elevation of 33 metres. Tunnel Hill lies near the city of Worcester, approximately 9.3 miles away, and is close to nearby places such as Newbridge Green and Upton upon Severn. Tunnel Hill has a population of around 630 people and predominantly consists of semi-detached housing. Tunnel Hill is located in the West Midlands region, about 97.7 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Worcestershire, Tunnel Hill included
Duckswich and Upton upon Severn are among the places around Tunnel Hill, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, throughout WR postcodes. A postcode starting WR8 0 gets the van to you fastest.
No need to shift the vehicle. Wherever it stands — near Cholera burial ground, in a lay-by heading to Upton Sports Club, at home — that's where it gets emptied. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of St Peter & St Paul, ring and ask instead of assuming.
The short version for Tunnel Hill drivers
Tip no AdBlue until you've read the cap. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it where it is, anywhere around Worcestershire: keep the vehicle off then call 0333 366 0103.