AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in White Stitch: How It Occurs and How to Stop It
Stop here a minute when the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then ring 0333 366 0103. In White Stitch, catching it before your motor runs usually leaves a drain and a full flush on the spot. 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
Many modern diesels around Kinwalsey, like those in White Stitch, run on two fluids; the motor gets just the diesel. The exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the fumes to fresh it, from a separate tank.
Each tank has its own filler. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, the diesel side is topped up all the time. Far less often, the AdBlue side is topped up — mostly from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. It's in the gap that the mistake lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen around White Stitch?
It's rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from your car, and letting it run dry leads to limp mode — so a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Whitestitch Lane, or at The Bull's Head on the way home after work.
Unfamiliar vehicles come next, as well. Hire cars, new motors and company cars place their fillers differently, and the hand reaches for the cap it used on the old one.
A spouted bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, after started, carries on. It's seconds, be it in Meriden or right in the centre of White Stitch.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Look at these before pouring, at a forecourt in White Stitch or a drive out in Four Oaks. A few seconds, no more.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones are often blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually do not.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of cars say there which fuel goes where.
- Cannot find it beside your diesel inlet? Then check beneath the bonnet or inside the boot — the handbook will say where.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park at Hampton-In-Arden? Check with the person who drove the vehicle last before you set off, not once the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
When the light goes on, anywhere across Warwickshire, follow this routine.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Meriden Bypass.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" out loud while unscrewing it. It seems silly. It works.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where the two share a flap, confirm it is closed before the bottle comes up.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, then check once more — making sure the diesel cap stayed closed throughout. After that, start the car.
Find at step two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? So stop just there. Never go on to step five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in White Stitch?
Short order, then. Top of it: your engine stays off. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels as soon as the ignition is switched on — so leave it off. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is pulled from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it's the Esso or the Sainsbury's, ask the staff to help roll your car clear of the pump. On your own drive in White Stitch? Then the vehicle remains where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your engine has already run. On the M6, under 3 miles from White Stitch, that means the next exit. A short hop across White Stitch is a smaller job than a run towards Coventry, under 10 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
When we turn up in White Stitch, what takes place?
Our van reaches your car wherever it has come to rest — your own drive, near Meriden Library, or by Meriden Church of England Primary School. Which liquid went in, the amount, and if it ran: our engineers ask because those replies decide the work and price. That price comes over the phone, before any van leaves.
Next: draining, then a full flush of the whole system. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and neither clears away by itself. Hence it matters more. A test is last: before that, clean diesel is added, and the filter is cleaned or replaced as needed. Before we go, our engineers start the car and make sure that it is running correctly.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour after our technicians arrive, as long as the motor has not run — and the pumps we use are safe on a live forecourt and quiet at night beside a house. Nothing in advance; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to check yours.
About White Stitch
White Stitch is a small hamlet in Warwickshire, situated inland at an elevation of around 120 metres, approximately 6.4 miles from Coventry. White Stitch lies near several other small settlements, including Meriden, Lodge Green, and Eaves Green, and is characterized by its semi-detached housing stock. White Stitch is part of the wider West Midlands region, but remains a distinct and separate community.
AdBlue drains across Warwickshire, White Stitch included
White Stitch is a rural hamlet, and the vans that cover it also work the places near it, Lodge Green and Eaves Green among them, across the CV postcode area. Give a postcode beginning CV7 7, and the van gets there fastest.
Moving your car isn't necessary. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near The Cross, a lay-by on the way to The Green, Meriden, a drive. Guessing doesn't help at the back of Cyclists' War Memorial, close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to pin down; phone and ask.
The short version for White Stitch motorists
Read the cap before you pour. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Keep the vehicle off then phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, throughout Warwickshire.