Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Woodcroft: Why It Happens
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and your ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. A drain and a full flush, carried out right where your car sits around Woodcroft, is normally what it needs when caught before the motor runs. The rest of this page explains why it occurs and how to ensure it doesn't — useful if you're reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Not one liquid but two: that is how plenty of modern diesels around Woodcroft and Bridge End carry, with diesel for the motor. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, and there spraying treats the gas.
Each tank has its own filler. Some motors put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others have both side by side under one flap. Diesel goes in on each forecourt visit, week in, week out. The AdBlue side is topped up far less regularly, normally from a bottle, and usually by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
Woodcroft: how AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
On a driveway off Hawksworth Avenue before work, or in the car park at Prince of Wales heading home: that is where the hurried top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it is empty, limp mode follows.
The old car's cap is where the hand goes — yet a hire car, a new motor or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That is the second thing: a new car.
A spouted bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, after started, keeps on. Whether it takes place in Wallbridge Park or the middle of Woodcroft, it is the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Be it a Woodcroft forecourt or a driveway out in Leek, take a couple of seconds over these before anything is poured in.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue ones are often blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually don't.
- The size. On many cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many motors say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows which it is if your filler isn't next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Congleton? Check with the person who drove the vehicle last before leaving, rather than once the light goes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
On the day the warning appears — wherever it is around Staffordshire — a routine to use.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Higher Woodcroft.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew it. It seems daft. It does the trick.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check once more, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Stage five stays off limits.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Woodcroft already?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your engine. Leave the ignition off too, because on plenty of diesels it alone starts the fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is sucked from.
Ask the staff to help push your car clear of the pump if you're on a forecourt — the Morrisons, the Sainsbury's or anywhere else. Your own drive around Woodcroft is where it should stay.
When the motor has run already, stop safely then turn the car off. Come off the M6 — under 15 miles out of Woodcroft — at the first junction. A short hop across Woodcroft is a smaller job than a run towards Stoke-on-Trent, under 10 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
What happens when we arrive around Woodcroft
The van reaches the vehicle wherever it has come to rest — your own driveway, beside The Salvation Army Leek, or by Woodcroft Academy. Our engineers ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it's run, because those answers settle this work and our quote. You hear that quote by phone, before anyone heads out.
Then the tank is cleared and the fuel system rinsed thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. Testing comes last: before that, clean diesel goes in, and the fuel filter is cleaned or replaced as needed. Before leaving, we start the engine and check that it is running properly.
Unstarted vehicles usually need a half-hour visit after arrival. The kit is safe on a busy filling station, and quiet enough for a residential street late at night. The insurer will ask for an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. It's worth checking your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Woodcroft
Woodcroft is a suburban area in Staffordshire, situated on the riverside with an elevation of 162 metres, and is located approximately 7.8 miles from Stoke-on-Trent. Woodcroft has a population of around 4003 people and predominantly consists of semi-detached housing. Woodcroft is near several local places, including Wallbridge Park, Barnfields, and Westwood, and is about 136.4 miles from London.
AdBlue drains around Woodcroft, and Staffordshire beyond
Over ST postcodes, the teams covering Woodcroft — a residential suburb — work the surrounding spots too, Westwood and Barnfields among them. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting ST13 5.
The vehicle stays where it is. Draining takes place on the spot, be it a drive, a road near Catholic Church of Saint Mary, or a layby on the way to the green space at the edge of the village. Assuming won't help at the back of All Saints' Church, Leek, on a boundary, or somewhere hard to pin down; ring and check.
For Woodcroft motorists, the short version
Pour nothing until you have read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere across Staffordshire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same — and so leave the vehicle off then phone 0333 366 0103.