AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Walsall Wood: Why It Happens and How to Stop It
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then set this page down for now, leave your ignition and motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. Around Walsall Wood, finding it before your motor turns normally leaves draining and a thorough flush where it stands. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it does not.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
No single liquid but two: that's how many newer diesels around Walsall Wood and Catshill run, with diesel for your engine. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, and there a spray treats the fumes.
Every tank has one filler of its own. Some vehicles keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot more place both together under one flap. At the pump, your diesel side is topped up all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less regularly, normally from a bottle, and normally by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. The slip lives in that gap.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Walsall Wood: how it happens
It is hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from your car, and running out leads to limp mode — so a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Salter's Road, or at The Royal Exchange on the way home that evening.
Then the vehicle is strange. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your 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, and so nothing stops the tip after it has started. Whether it happens in Holly Bank or the middle of Walsall Wood, it's the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Check these before pouring, at a forecourt in Walsall Wood or a drive over in Leighswood. A few seconds, no more.
- Check the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually aren't.
- Plenty of vehicles fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Check inside your fuel flap: plenty of motors have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by the diesel cap, it's in the 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 — if you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Shenstone.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
When the light goes on, anywhere around West Midlands, follow this routine.
- Stop somewhere level, motor off, with time in hand — not hurried on the side of Stackhouse Close.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, yes, yet it works.
- The two under one flap? Then confirm the cap on the diesel side stays closed before lifting the bottle.
- Stop once that tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; before that, tip gently using its built-in spout.
- Close the cap, and check again — confirm the diesel filler stayed shut the whole time. After that, start the vehicle.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Step five stays out.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Walsall Wood?
Do not start the motor: that's where the short order of things begins. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch the vehicle 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 the fuel is drawn from.
Ask the staff to help roll the vehicle clear of the pump if you are on a forecourt — the Shell, the another forecourt nearby or anywhere else. Your own drive in Walsall Wood is where it stays.
Already started? Stop when it's sensible, then turn off. On the M6 Toll, under 3 miles from Walsall Wood, that means the next junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Lichfield, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Walsall Wood.
Walsall Wood: what happens when we get there
Outside Walsall Wood School, near Walsall Wood Methodist Church or on your own driveway: wherever the car has stopped, we come to it. Our technicians ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether it's run, because those answers settle this work and the price. On the call itself, you are told the quote — ahead of dispatch.
Next: draining, then a thorough flush of the entire system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more here than with petrol. A test comes at the end: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and the fuel filter is cleaned or replaced as needed. Before leaving, our technicians fire it up and make sure that it is running properly.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour after our technicians get there, provided your engine has not run — and the pumps we use are safe on a live forecourt and quiet after dark outside a house. Your insurer will ask for the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. Before we get there, take a look at your policy; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Walsall Wood, for a moment
Walsall Wood is a suburban area in the West Midlands, situated near the River Tame and close to the cities of Lichfield and Walsall. Walsall Wood sits at an elevation of around 156 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Walsall Wood is located near several other places, including Holly Bank, Vigo, and Shire Oak, and is approximately 108.8 miles northwest of London.
AdBlue drains about Walsall Wood, and West Midlands beyond
As a residential suburb, Walsall Wood has the same vans as nearby places — Vigo, Shire Oak — right through WS postcodes and the wider area beyond. A postcode starting WS9 9 gets the van to you fastest.
Your car doesn't need to shift. Wherever it sits — near Brownhills & Walsall Wood Fellowship Community Centre, on a lay-by heading to Black Country Millennium Forest, at home — that is where it is drained. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Walsall Wood Pithead Monument.
For Walsall Wood people, the short version
Always, the cap; then, the tip. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave the vehicle off then call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it waits, anywhere across West Midlands.