Whitehurst: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Pause here for a moment if your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then phone 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, carried out right where your car sits in Whitehurst, is usually all it takes when caught before your engine runs. Here before the event? In that case what follows explains how it comes about and what to prevent it happening at all.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Plenty of current diesels on the roads round Whitehurst and Kingsley Moor carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust stream and cleans it.
Different tanks, separate fillers. Some cars keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty more place both side by side under one flap. At the petrol pump, your diesel side gets filled constantly. Far less frequently, the AdBlue side gets topped up — normally from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. Mistakes happen in the gap between the two.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place around Whitehurst
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
On a driveway off Whitehurst Lane before work, or in the car park outside The Royal Oak on the way home: that's where the hurried top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low the car warns you, and once it is gone, limp mode follows.
Next, your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old vehicle — since a hire car, a new motor or a company car places the fillers where your last one didn't.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the tip after it has started. Whether it occurs in Godleybrook or the middle of Whitehurst, it is the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Greenhead or a forecourt in Whitehurst, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Read the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally aren't.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- Open the filler flap and check for a label — plenty of cars mark which goes in each filler right there.
- 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.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at Blythe Bridge, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
When the light comes on, anywhere in Staffordshire, follow this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Godley Lane, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park and switch off first.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, yes, but it does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. When the two share a flap, confirm it is shut before the bottle comes up.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the car, close the cap and look a second time that your diesel cap was never came off.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Step five is off limits.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Whitehurst?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the engine. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch the vehicle on. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is drawn from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it is the Shell or the another forecourt nearby, ask the attendants to help roll the vehicle clear of the petrol pump. At home in Whitehurst? So the car stays where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the motor has already run. The next junction means where to come off if you're on the M6, under 10 miles from Whitehurst. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Stoke-on-Trent, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Whitehurst.
Our arrival in Whitehurst, and what happens next
Outside Dilhorne Endowed CofE Primary School, close to All Saints or on your own driveway: wherever the car has stopped, our technicians come to it. Which liquid was put in, the quantity, and if it ran: our engineers ask since the replies set the work and price. The price comes on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
Next: a drain, then a full flush of the whole system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that matters more here than with petrol. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Your engine is fired up next and checked to be sure it runs smoothly, all before we leave.
Unstarted vehicles usually need a half-hour job from the moment we arrive. The equipment is fine on a busy forecourt, and quiet enough for a driveway after dark. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents your insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Whitehurst
Whitehurst is a small hamlet in Staffordshire, situated inland at an elevation of 206 metres, approximately 5.7 miles from Stoke-on-Trent. Whitehurst lies near other local places such as Godleybrook, Dilhorne, and Blakeley Lane, and is characterized by its predominantly detached housing. Whitehurst is a relatively small community, with a population of around 522 people, and is located about 131.3 miles northwest of London.
Whitehurst and Staffordshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Whitehurst is a rural hamlet, and the vans that cover it also work the towns around it, Dilhorne and Blakeley Lane among them, across the ST postcode area. Give a postcode that starts ST10 2, and our van gets there fastest.
The vehicle does not need to move. The drain happens on the spot, be it a driveway, a road by Boundary Methodist Church, or a layby on the way to Dilhorne Rec. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Caverswall Stocks, ring and ask instead of assuming.
In short, for Whitehurst motorists
Always, the cap; then, the tip. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere around Staffordshire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway — and so leave the car off and ring 0333 366 0103.