How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Wolstanton
Pause here for a moment if the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Around Wolstanton, finding it before the engine turns usually means draining and a full flush where it stands. Here before the event? Then what follows explains why it comes about and what to stop it happening at all.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Plenty of modern diesels in Basford, as well as Wolstanton, run on two liquids; the motor gets only the diesel. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Every tank comes with a filler of its own. Many of vehicles have a single flap for both, while some move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is filled at the petrol pump all the time. Far less frequently, the AdBlue side gets filled — mostly from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. That gap is where the error lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Wolstanton: how it happens
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
On a driveway off Albert Terrace before work, or in the car park outside The Old Smithy on the way home: that is where the hurried top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low the vehicle warns you, and if it is gone, limp mode kicks in.
The old car's cap is where the hand reaches — but a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That's the second thing: a new motor.
A spouted bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, once started, carries on. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Wolstanton or out in Porthill.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
A few seconds is all these take — so check them before you pour anything, on a driveway in The Brampton or a forecourt in Wolstanton.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Go by the cap, not its position.
- Many vehicles give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of cars say there which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler sits if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Longport? Check with whoever drove it last before you set off, not when the light goes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Staffordshire that is.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Silverdale Road.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, yes, but it works.
- Both under one flap? Then confirm the lid on the diesel filler stays shut ahead of raising the bottle.
- Stop once your tank fills or the bottle runs dry; before that, pour slowly through the built-in spout.
- Close the cap, and check again — confirm the diesel filler remained shut the whole time. After that, start your car.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Step five is out.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Wolstanton already?
Short list, then. First: the motor stays unstarted. Don't switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is drawn from.
The staff at Asda, BP or any forecourt will normally help pushing the vehicle away when you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway in Wolstanton.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your engine has already run. Wolstanton lies under 5 miles from the M6; there, use the first exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Stoke-on-Trent, under 3 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Wolstanton.
What takes place when we arrive around Wolstanton
Our technicians come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Ellison Primary Academy, close to Wolstanton Methodist Church or on your own drive. What fluid got in, the quantity, and if it ran: our technicians ask because the answers decide both work and quote. During the phone call itself, you hear the price — ahead of anything else.
Emptying that tank comes next, then a full flush of the fuel 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 counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. The filter flushed or, where needed, replaced; fresh diesel in; then a check of your vehicle. Then we fire it up and make sure it runs smoothly before we go.
With pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your motor hasn't run need about half an hour after our engineers are there. Nothing in advance; you settle up that day. At the end, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Wolstanton and where it is
Wolstanton is a suburban area situated on the outskirts of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, with Wolstanton occupying a riverside location near the River Trent. Wolstanton sits at an elevation of around 165 metres, with Wolstanton being close to nearby places such as Porthill, Dimsdale, and May Bank. Wolstanton has a population of approximately 8351 residents, with Wolstanton predominantly consisting of semi-detached housing.
AdBlue drains round Wolstanton, and Staffordshire beyond
Being a residential suburb, Wolstanton has the same vans as surrounding places — Dimsdale, May Bank — right across ST postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. Fastest of all: quote a ST5 8 postcode to the van.
Your car remains where it is. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Wolstanton Marsh, a side street near Saint Margaret's Church: we drain it where it is. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Wolstanton Community Centre, ring and ask instead of assuming.
The short version for Wolstanton motorists
Pour no AdBlue till you have read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere in Staffordshire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same — and so leave the car off and ring 0333 366 0103.