Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Woodway Park
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then put this page aside for now, leave the ignition and motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. In Woodway Park, finding it before your engine runs usually leaves draining and a thorough flush on the spot. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Plenty of newer diesels in Henley Green, like those in Woodway Park, run on two fluids; your motor takes only the diesel. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, where a spray cleans the fumes.
There is a filler on each tank. Many of motors share a single flap for both, whereas others move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is fuelled at the petrol pump all the time. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less regularly, normally from a bottle, and usually by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the mistake lives.
Woodway Park: how AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs
Carelessness seldom explains it. What does is three things coming up at once.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from your car, and running dry means limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Holmcroft, or at The Mount Pleasant on the way home that evening.
New-to-you cars are next, too. Rentals, new cars and company vehicles put their fillers in new places, and habit goes for the cap it used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, after begun, keeps on. Mount Pleasant or the middle of Woodway Park: it is the same few seconds either way.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Wood End or a forecourt in Woodway Park, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on many cars. Check for it.
- Can't see it beside your diesel inlet? Then check beneath the bonnet or in your boot — the handbook will say which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Coventry Arena? Check with whoever drove the car last before you set off, rather than when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
Anywhere across West Midlands the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Switch off after you park — level ground, engine off, and never in a rush beside Brookshaw Way on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Stop once your tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; before that, pour gently through the built-in spout.
- Shut the cap, and look once more — confirm the diesel filler remained closed the whole time. Only then, start the car.
Find at step two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? Then stop just there. Do not go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Woodway Park already?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your engine. Do not switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Diluting it with extra diesel won't work, because AdBlue settles to the base instead of blending — and that is where the fuel is sucked from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it's the Texaco or the Asda, ask the staff to help push your car clear of the pump. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway around Woodway Park.
Where the motor has run already, pull over somewhere safe and switch it off. On the M6, under a mile from Woodway Park, that means the next exit. Mileage matters — a quick hop across Woodway Park is a smaller job than driving under 5 miles towards Coventry — so say about how far it went.
Woodway Park: what occurs when our engineers arrive
Our van comes to your car wherever it has come to rest — your own driveway, beside Wood's Mini Market, or by Whittle Academy. Both the work and the price rest on three answers — which liquid, what quantity, and whether it has run — so we ask. On the call itself, you are told our quote — before anything else.
The fuel system is then cleaned thoroughly, once your tank is emptied. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own. The filter cleaned or, where it must be, replaced; fresh diesel in; then a test of the vehicle. The engine is started next and tested to be sure it runs correctly, all before our engineers go.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour once we get there, as long as the motor hasn't run — and the pumps our engineers use are safe on a live forecourt and quiet after dark beside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It's worth looking at your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Woodway Park and where it is
Woodway Park is a suburban area located near Coventry in the West Midlands, sitting at an elevation of around 89 metres. Woodway Park forms part of the larger Coventry urban area, with nearby places including Mount Pleasant, Walsgrave on Sowe, and Potters Green. Woodway Park is characterized by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock, typical of many suburban areas in the region.
AdBlue drains round Woodway Park, and West Midlands beyond
Woodway Park is a residential suburb, and our vans that cover it also work the towns around it, Walsgrave on Sowe and Potters Green among them, across the CV postcode area. A postcode starting CV2 2 gets our van to you fastest.
Your car remains put. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street close to St Philip, a lay-by on the way to Woodway Walk, a driveway. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you're near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Walsgrave Baptist Church.
For Woodway Park motorists, the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere in West Midlands, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless — so leave the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103.