Why It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Witherley
Stop here for a moment if your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before your motor runs, it is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Witherley. The remainder of this page explains why it happens and how to ensure it does not — useful if you are reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of modern diesels around Ratcliffe Culey, as well as Witherley, run on two liquids; the motor gets only the diesel. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust stream and cleans it.
Different tanks, different fillers. Many of vehicles share a single flap for both, while others put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Filling your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on constantly. The AdBlue side is topped up far less frequently, normally from a bottle, and usually by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. Mistakes happen in that gap between the two.
Witherley: how AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from your car, and letting it run out leads to limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Kennel Lane, perhaps outside Blue Lion on the way home that evening.
Then your car is new. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
No part stops the tip once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Mancetter or the heart of Witherley: it is the same few seconds in both.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Hartshill Green or a forecourt around Witherley, check these. They take a few seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually is not. Read it instead of going by position.
- Plenty of cars fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Lift the flap and check for a label — many motors show which goes in which inlet just there.
- Cannot see it beside your diesel inlet? In that case check below the bonnet or inside the boot — the handbook says where.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Atherstone? Ask whoever drove the car last before you set off, rather than when the light goes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Leicestershire that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Stable Courtyard, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park then switch off first.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, perhaps, yet it works.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap, then check again — making sure the diesel filler remained shut the whole time. Only then, start the car.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Never go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Witherley?
Do not start the motor: that's how the short order of things begins. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch the vehicle on. Filling up with diesel won't weaken it: instead, AdBlue drops to the bottom of your tank, right where the fuel is taken from.
Ask the staff to help push the car clear of the pump if you're on a forecourt — the Murco, the Tesco or somewhere else. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway in Witherley.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your motor has already run. Witherley lies under 10 miles from the M42; there, use the first junction. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Witherley is smaller a job than a run of under 15 miles towards Coventry, and so say.
When our technicians get there around Witherley, what takes place?
We come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Witherley Church of England Primary School, near Witherley Village Sign or on your own driveway. Those replies settle this work and the quote, so we ask what went in, about how much, and if it's run. Nobody heads out before you've had the quote by phone.
Draining that tank comes next, followed by a full flush of the fuel system. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and neither clears out by itself. That is why it matters more. A test comes last: before that, fresh diesel is added, and the filter is cleaned or replaced if necessary. We do not go until it has been started and is running properly.
Unstarted cars usually need a half-hour job from the moment we arrive. The equipment is fine on a busy filling station, and hushed enough for a residential street late at night. No money in advance; you settle up that day. At the end, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Witherley, briefly
Witherley is a small village in Leicestershire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of around 75 metres. Witherley lies near the towns of Atherstone and Mancetter, and is within commuting distance of Coventry. Witherley has a population of approximately 641 people, predominantly living in detached houses. Witherley is located in the East Midlands region, about 94 miles northwest of London.
Witherley and Leicestershire: AdBlue drains across the area
Witherley is a village, and the vans that cover it also work the towns near it, Atherstone and Fenny Drayton among them, across the CV postcode area. Quickest of all: give a CV9 3 postcode for our van.
Moving the car is not necessary. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Westwood Road Recreation Area, a side street near St Peter: our technicians drain the car where it is. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of War Memorial, ring and ask instead of guessing.
For Witherley people, the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it wherever it is, anywhere across Leicestershire: switch the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103.