Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in White Cross: Why It Happens
Leave the motor and ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Caught before your engine runs, it's generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around White Cross. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Plenty of newer diesels around Bobblestock, like those in White Cross, carry on two liquids; your engine takes only your diesel. The exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the gas to clean it, from a separate tank.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, side by side: that's the arrangement on many cars. On others, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. Diesel gets filled at each filling station call-out, week in, week out. Much less regularly, the AdBlue side is topped up — normally from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. Mistakes happen in the gap between them.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank happens around White Cross
Carelessness rarely causes it. Instead is three things coming up together.
On a driveway off Wordsworth Road before work, or in the car park outside Grandstand on the way home: that is where the rushed top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it is gone, limp mode kicks in.
The old car's cap is where the hand reaches — but a rental car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That's the second thing: a new 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 once it has started. It's seconds, be it out in Moor Park or bang in the centre of White Cross.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Whether a White Cross forecourt or a drive out in Broomy Hill, spend a few seconds on these before anything goes in.
- Position can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones are often blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally don't.
- Many motors fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Check inside the fuel flap: many vehicles carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says which it is when the filler isn't next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Hereford, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Herefordshire that is.
- Switch off after you park — flat ground, motor off, and never in a rush by King's Acre Road at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- The diesel cap remains on. When the two share a flap, make sure it is shut before the bottle comes up.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, then look once more — confirm your diesel cap stayed shut the whole time. Only then, start the vehicle.
Find at step two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? Then stop just there. Stage five is out.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around White Cross already?
Short order, then. First: the engine stays unstarted. Don't switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is pulled from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
On a forecourt — Shell, Sainsbury's or any other — the staff will normally help roll the vehicle away, if you ask. If you're on your own driveway in White Cross, leave the car where it sits.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. The next exit means the place to leave if you are on the M50, under 15 miles from White Cross. About how far did it go? Crossing White Cross is smaller work than a trip of under 3 miles to Hereford, so say.
When our technicians get there around White Cross, what happens?
We come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Trinity Primary School, close to Memorial Cross or on your own drive. The answers determine the work and our price, so our engineers ask what was put in, about how much, and whether it has run. The quote is given on the call, before any van leaves.
After that: draining, then a full flush of the entire system. More than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: crystals form, certain metals corrode, and none of it washes away unaided, no matter how long it is left. After your filter has been cleaned — or replaced, where required — clean diesel goes in, and then the car is tested. After that our engineers fire it up and confirm it runs correctly before leaving.
Unstarted cars usually mean a half-hour job after arrival. The equipment is fine on a busy forecourt, and quiet enough for a driveway late at night. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork your insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Before we get there, have a look at your policy; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About White Cross, for a moment
White Cross is a suburban area located on the River Wye in Herefordshire, England, with a mix of semi-detached housing and local amenities. White Cross sits at an elevation of 62 metres, close to the city of Hereford and near other suburban areas such as Moor Park and Westfields. White Cross is part of the wider Hereford urban area, with easy access to the city centre and surrounding countryside. White Cross has a population of around 6346 people, living in a range of semi-detached homes,
AdBlue drains around White Cross and across Herefordshire
Being a residential suburb, White Cross shares its vans nearby areas — Westfields, Ryelands — right through HR postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. A postcode starting HR4 0 gets the van to you fastest.
No need to move the car. The drain happens right there, whether a driveway, a street by Hereford Squash/Tennis/Raquetball Centre, or a layby on the way to Garden of Remembrance. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Holy Trinity.
White Cross drivers: the short version
Pour nothing till you have read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere across Herefordshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless — and so leave it off then ring 0333 366 0103.