How It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Wall Heath
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and your ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, carried out right where the vehicle stands in Wall Heath, is normally what it takes when found before the motor runs. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Plenty of modern diesels in Swindon, like those in Wall Heath, carry on two fluids; your engine takes just the diesel. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust stream to clean it.
Each tank has its own filler. Plenty of cars have a single flap for both, whereas others move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, your diesel side is topped up constantly. Far less frequently, the AdBlue side is filled — normally from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. That gap is where the mistake lives.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank happens around Wall Heath
Carelessness seldom causes it. What does is three things coming up together.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, your vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Chapel Street before work, or in the car park at The Prince Albert on the way home.
The old car's cap is where your hand goes — but a rental car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That is a second factor: an unfamiliar motor.
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 tip after it has started. It takes seconds, whether in Hinksford or right in the centre of Wall Heath.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
A couple of seconds is all these take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Greensforge or a forecourt in Wall Heath.
- Read the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue caps are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally are not.
- On plenty of cars, the size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many cars say there which fuel goes where.
- 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.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Stourbridge Town.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
Wherever across West Midlands the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Switch off after you park — level ground, motor stopped, and not rushed beside Enville Road at the roadside.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you have found your filler and read it.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, and check once more — confirm your diesel filler stayed shut the whole time. After that, start the vehicle.
Find at stage two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? So stop right there. Leave out step five altogether.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Wall Heath already?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your motor. Don't switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is sucked from.
The attendants at Texaco, Esso or another forecourt will usually lend a hand pushing your car away if you ask. If you are on your own drive in Wall Heath, leave it where it stands.
Where your engine has been run already, pull over somewhere safe then switch the car off. Wall Heath sits under 10 miles from the M5; on it, use the first junction. Mileage counts — a short hop across Wall Heath is a smaller job than heading under 10 miles towards Wolverhampton — so say roughly how far it went.
When our technicians get there around Wall Heath, what occurs?
Our technicians come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Church of the Ascension CofE Primary School, close to Church of Ascension or on your own drive. Which liquid was put in, the amount, and if it ran: we ask because the replies decide both work and price. That quote is given on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
Then that tank is drained and the system purged thoroughly. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and neither washes away by itself. That is why it matters more. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Before we go, we fire it up and confirm that it is running correctly.
Unrun vehicles usually mean a half-hour visit after arrival. The kit is safe on a live forecourt, and hushed enough for a residential street after dark. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents an insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. It is worth checking your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Wall Heath, for a moment
Wall Heath is a suburban area in the West Midlands, situated near the River Stour and close to the city of Wolverhampton. Wall Heath has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are predominant, and the area is relatively low-lying at an elevation of 81 metres. Wall Heath is part of the larger West Midlands conurbation, but retains a distinct character as a residential community. Wall Heath is also close to several nearby places, including Hinksford, Kingswinford, and Himley.
AdBlue drains about Wall Heath, and West Midlands beyond
Over DY postcodes, our vans covering Wall Heath — a residential suburb — work the surrounding locations too, Himley and Kingswinford included. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting DY6 0.
The vehicle does not need to shift. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Wall Heath Park, a side street near Kingswinford Library: our engineers drain the car where it stands. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of St Michael and All Angels.
In short, for Wall Heath people
Tip nothing until you've read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it stands, anywhere across West Midlands.