Why It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Woodside
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and the ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. Around Woodside, catching it before your motor turns normally leaves a drain and a full flush where it stands. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of newer diesels in Russells Hall, as well as Woodside, run on two liquids; the engine takes only your 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.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the layout on many vehicles. On others, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. At the pump, your diesel side is topped up constantly. Far less commonly, the AdBlue side is topped up — normally from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Woodside: how it happens
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, your vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Avenue Road before work, or in the car park at The Reindeer on the way home.
The old car's filler is where your hand reaches — but a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That's a second thing: a new motor.
A spout-topped bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, once started, carries on. Holly Hall or the middle of Woodside: it takes the same few seconds either way.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Be it a Woodside forecourt or a driveway out in Springs Mire, take a few seconds over these before any is poured in.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally don't.
- Plenty of motors give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many motors say there which fuel goes where.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler sits if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Cradley Heath? Check with whoever drove it last before you set off, not once the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
When the light goes on, wherever around West Midlands, use this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Malvern Crescent, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park then switch off properly.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you've found your filler and read it.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Before you start the vehicle, shut the cap and check a second time that your diesel cap was never opened off.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Don't go on to stage five.
Woodside: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Don't start the motor: that is how the short order of things begins. Keep the ignition off too, since on plenty of diesels switching it on by itself runs your pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is drawn from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it is the BP or the JET, ask the staff to help push your car away from the pump. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive around Woodside.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. On the M5, under 5 miles from Woodside, that means the next junction. Distance counts — a quick hop across Woodside makes a smaller job than heading under 10 miles to Wolverhampton — so say roughly how far it went.
When we turn up in Woodside, what occurs?
Anywhere the vehicle has stopped, be it by Woodside Primary School and Nursery, near Drinking Fountain or at home, our van travels to it. Which fluid was put in, the amount, and whether it ran: we ask because the answers set both work and price. You hear that price by phone, before anyone sets off.
The fuel system is then flushed thoroughly, once that tank is drained. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and none of that clears out unaided. That is why it matters more. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. The engine is started next and checked to make sure it runs smoothly, all before we head off.
Unrun cars mostly mean a half-hour visit from the moment we arrive. The kit is fine on a busy filling station, and quiet enough for a driveway after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It is worth looking at your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Woodside itself
Woodside is a suburban area located on the outskirts of Wolverhampton, situated near several lakes and water features. Woodside sits at an elevation of around 165 metres, with a mix of semi-detached housing and local amenities. Woodside is close to nearby places such as Holly Hall, Harts Hill, and Scotts Green, and is about 6 miles from Wolverhampton city centre. Woodside has a population of approximately 4032 residents.
AdBlue drains in Woodside and across West Midlands
Throughout DY postcodes, our teams that cover Woodside — a residential suburb — work the surrounding spots too, Scotts Green and Harts Hill among them. A postcode starting DY2 0 gets the van to you fastest.
No need to shift the vehicle. The drain happens on the spot, whether a drive, a street by Woodside Library Link, or a lay-by on the way to Woodside Park. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Woodside Community Center? Close to a border? Asking beats guessing, so phone.
For Woodside drivers, the short version
First, the cap; then, the pour. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Leave the car off and call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, across West Midlands.