AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Webheath: How It Happens and How to Prevent It
Stop here a minute when the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. Around Webheath, catching it before your engine runs normally leaves draining and a thorough flush on the spot. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Many newer diesels on the roads around Webheath and Southcrest carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the 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 is a filler on every tank. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the layout on many cars. On others, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in the boot instead. Diesel goes in on each forecourt visit, again and again. Rarely filled, AdBlue usually goes in out of a bottle, poured by a driver who must stop and think which filler it needs. The mistake grows in that gap between the two.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Webheath: how it takes place
It's seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the car goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Downsell Road before work, or in the car park at Rose and Crown on the way home.
Then, your hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old motor — since a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
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. Batchley or the heart of Webheath: it is the same few seconds in both.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Check these before pouring, on a forecourt in Webheath or a drive over in Callow Hill. Seconds, that's all.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Go by the cap, not its position.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- Check inside the fuel flap: plenty of motors have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by the diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Ask as you pick up a rental or company car — at Redditch's car park, perhaps — rather than once the warning appears.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Worcestershire that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Heathfield Road, not on a slope, not with your engine 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, but it works.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it is 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 your car.
Find at the second or third step that AdBlue went into the wrong tank? That's where you stop. Leave out stage five entirely.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Webheath?
Short list, then. Top of that: your motor remains off. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels the moment your ignition is switched on — and so keep it off. Don't 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 pulled from.
On a forecourt — BP, another forecourt nearby or any other — the attendants will usually help roll your car away, when you ask. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway in Webheath.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Come off the M42 — under 5 miles out of Webheath — at the next junction. A short hop across Webheath is a smaller job than a run towards Worcester, under 15 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
Webheath: what occurs when our technicians arrive
The van comes to your car wherever it stopped — your own drive, beside Webheath Village Hall, or by Webheath Academy Primary School. Both the work and our price depend on three answers — which liquid, what amount, and whether it has run — so we ask. That quote comes on the call, before any van leaves.
The fuel system is then purged thoroughly, once your tank is cleared. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. A test comes at the end: before that, clean diesel is added, and the fuel filter is cleaned or changed if necessary. Your engine is fired up next and tested to be sure it runs smoothly, all before our engineers leave.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour once our engineers get there, provided your motor has not run — and the pumps our technicians use are fine on a live forecourt yet quiet after dark beside a house. The insurer usually wants the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. Before we get there, take a look at your policy; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Webheath and where it is
Webheath is a suburban area in Worcestershire, situated inland at an elevation of around 157 metres. Webheath lies approximately 12.9 miles north of Worcester and 95.6 miles northwest of London, near the neighbouring areas of Batchley, Foxlydiate, and Headless Cross. Webheath is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its residential nature.
AdBlue drains around Webheath and across Worcestershire
Throughout B postcodes, the vans that cover Webheath — a residential suburb — work the surrounding places too, Headless Cross and Foxlydiate included. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting B97 5.
The car doesn't need to move. Anywhere it sits — beside Christadelphian Hall, on a layby en route to erwood close opening park, on a drive — that's where it gets emptied. Guessing doesn't help behind St. Philip's, on a border, or somewhere awkward to pin down; ring and check.
Webheath people: the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless, leave it off and ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere across Worcestershire.