Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Whitestone: Why It Occurs
Keep your engine and ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Caught before your motor runs, it's generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Whitestone. The remainder of this page covers why it happens and how to ensure it does not — useful if you are reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Not one liquid but two: that's how plenty of modern diesels around Whitestone and Horeston Grange run, with diesel for the motor. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, the diesel side gets filled all the time. Far less often, the AdBlue side gets filled — mostly from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. The mistake grows in the gap between the two.
Whitestone: how AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
Haste comes from the warning. The vehicle tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a driveway off Lutterworth Road, or on the way home in the car park outside Chetwynd Arms.
Then, the hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old motor — because a hire car, a new motor 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 pour once it has started. It takes a few seconds, be it in Attleborough or right in the centre of Whitestone.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Look at these before pouring, on a forecourt in Whitestone or a driveway out in Weston in Arden. A few seconds, that's all.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually isn't. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- Many cars fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many cars say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says where it is if your filler isn't next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Bermuda Park.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Warwickshire that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Golf Drive, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park then switch off properly.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you have found the filler and read the cap.
- The diesel cap stays on. When the two share a flap, confirm it's closed before the bottle comes up.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Spot at stage two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? Then stop right there. Don't carry on to stage five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Whitestone?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your motor. Leave the ignition off too, since on plenty of diesels it by itself starts the fuel pump. Topping up with diesel will not thin it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the base of that tank, just where fuel is taken from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it is the the nearest petrol station or the Texaco, ask the attendants to help roll the vehicle clear of the petrol pump. If you're on your own driveway around Whitestone, leave the vehicle where it sits.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. On the M69, under 3 miles from Whitestone, that means the next junction. About how far did it go? Hopping across Whitestone is less work than a trip of under 10 miles to Coventry, and so tell us.
Whitestone: what occurs when our technicians arrive
By Whitestone Infant School, close to Guru Nanak Gurdwara Sikh Temple or on your own driveway: wherever the car has stopped, we come to it. Which fluid was put in, the amount, and whether it ran: our engineers ask since the replies set both work and price. That price is given on the call, before any van leaves.
Next: draining, then a thorough 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 the flush counts more here than with petrol. A test is last: before that, fresh diesel is added, and the fuel filter is cleaned or changed as needed. Then we start the car and check it runs properly before leaving.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour once our engineers arrive, as long as your engine has not run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a busy forecourt yet quiet after dark outside a house. Your insurer will ask for an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. Before we get there, take a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Whitestone itself
Whitestone is a suburban area in Warwickshire, situated approximately 7 miles north of Coventry and 88 miles northwest of London. Whitestone sits at an elevation of around 102 metres, characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock. Whitestone is located near other local places such as Attleborough, Marston Jabbett, and Hill Top, and has a population of around 6117 residents.
AdBlue drains in Whitestone and across Warwickshire
Being a residential suburb, Whitestone shares its vans surrounding areas — Marston Jabbett, Hill Top — right through CV postcodes and the wider area beyond. Quote a postcode that starts CV11 6, and the van gets there quickest.
The car stays put. We drain it where it is — a side street near Holy Trinity Church Attleborough, a lay-by on the way to Nuneaton Golf Club, a driveway. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Pingles Leisure Centre? Close to a county line? Checking beats assuming, and so ring.
Whitestone motorists: the short version
First, the cap; after that, the pour. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave the car off and call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it sits, anywhere in Warwickshire.