Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Vigo
Keep your engine and ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Caught before the engine runs, it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Vigo. Reading in advance? In that case what follows explains how it happens and what to prevent it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Diesel feeds your engine — yet plenty of newer diesels driven about Vigo and Stubbers Green carry a second liquid as well. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, and there spraying treats the fumes.
Each tank comes with a filler of its own. Plenty of vehicles share a single flap for the two, whereas some move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in on each forecourt visit, week in, week out. Seldom topped up, AdBlue usually comes from a bottle, poured by a driver who must stop and think which cap to use. That gap is where the slip lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place around Vigo
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from the vehicle, and running dry leads to limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Sunnyside, or at The Brickmakers Arms on the way home that evening.
Unfamiliar vehicles come second, as well. Rentals, new vehicles and company vehicles place their fillers in new places, and habit goes for the cap it used on the old one.
Third, the spout fits: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in just as easily, and after the pour begins, no part halts it. It takes seconds, whether out in Holly Bank or bang in the heart of Vigo.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Shire Oak or a forecourt around Vigo.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually isn't. Read it instead of going by position.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of motors, the AdBlue one.
- Lift the flap and check for a label — plenty of vehicles mark what belongs in which filler just there.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by the diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at Bloxwich, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
When the light goes on, wherever across West Midlands, use this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Brookland Road, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park then switch off properly.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, perhaps, but it does the trick.
- Both under a single flap? Then confirm the cap on the diesel filler is still closed ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start the vehicle: close the cap, check again, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Discover at the second or third stage that AdBlue went into the wrong tank? That is where you stop. Do not go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Vigo already?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the engine. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels the moment the ignition is switched on — so leave it off. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it is the Shell or the Heath Service Station, ask the attendants to help roll the car away from the petrol pump. If you're on your own driveway in Vigo, leave the vehicle where it is.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. The next junction is the place to come off if you're on the M6 Toll, under 3 miles from Vigo. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Lichfield, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Vigo.
When our technicians get there in Vigo, what happens?
The van reaches the vehicle wherever it stopped — your own driveway, beside Walsall Wood People, or by St John's Church of England Primary School. Both the work and our quote rest on three replies — what liquid, what quantity, and if it has run — so we ask. That price comes on the call, before any van leaves.
Your system is then purged thoroughly, after your tank is drained. More than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: crystals build up, some metals are attacked, and nothing washes out unaided, however long it is left. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Next we fire it up and confirm it runs properly before we go.
Unstarted vehicles usually mean a half-hour job from arrival. The equipment is safe on a busy forecourt, and quiet enough for a driveway late at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It is worth looking at your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Vigo itself
Vigo is a suburban area in the West Midlands, situated near the city of Lichfield and the surrounding neighbourhoods of Holly Bank, Walsall Wood, and Leighswood. Vigo lies on the riverside, with an elevation of around 157 metres, and is characterized by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock. Vigo is located approximately 5.8 miles from Lichfield and about 108.6 miles northwest of London, making it a commuter-friendly location. Vigo has a population of around 4325 residents, contributing to the wider West Midlands urban landscape.
Vigo and West Midlands: AdBlue drains across the area
Vigo is a residential suburb, and the teams that cover it also work the towns near it, Walsall Wood and Leighswood among them, across the WS postcode area. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting WS9 9.
Moving your car is not necessary. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Black Country Millennium Forest, a side street near Walsall Wood Library: we drain the car where it is. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of The Parish Church of St John.
The short version for Vigo people
Pour no AdBlue until you've read the cap. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will empty it wherever it stands, anywhere in West Midlands: switch the car off then ring 0333 366 0103.