Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Yardley Wood: Why It Happens
Stop here for a moment when your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then phone 0333 366 0103. Around Yardley Wood, finding it before the engine turns normally means a drain and a thorough flush on the spot. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Diesel goes to the motor — but many newer diesels driven around Yardley Wood and Solihull Lodge hold a second liquid as well. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust stream to clean it.
Each tank has its own filler. Other motors put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot more place both side by side behind one flap. Filling your diesel side at the petrol pump happens all the time. Far less frequently, the AdBlue side gets filled — mostly from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. The slip lives in that gap.
Yardley Wood: how AdBlue in the diesel tank happens
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Hurry follows from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a drive off Priory Road, or heading home in the car park outside D J Quinn's.
New-to-you cars are second, too. Hire cars, new motors and company vehicles put their fillers differently, and the hand goes for the cap it used on the old one.
No part halts the pour after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it takes place in Billesley or the middle of Yardley Wood, it is the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Look at these first, at a forecourt around Yardley Wood or a driveway over in Springfield. Seconds, that's all.
- Position misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones are often blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually don't.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on many motors. Look for it.
- Can't see it next to the diesel inlet? In that case check below the bonnet or in the boot — the owner's manual says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at the nearest station? Check with whoever drove the car last before leaving, rather than when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
Anywhere in West Midlands the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Highfield Road, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park and switch off first.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you've found the filler and read it.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, and look again — making sure your diesel cap remained shut throughout. Only then, start the vehicle.
Find during the second or third step that the bottle went in the diesel filler? That's where you stop. Skip step five altogether.
Yardley Wood: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Do not start the motor: that's where the short order of things begins. Keep your ignition off as well, because on many diesels it by itself starts the fuel pump. Thinning it with more diesel won't work, because AdBlue settles to the bottom rather than mixing — and that is where your fuel is sucked from.
At a forecourt — Shell, BP or any other — the staff will usually help push your car clear, if you ask. If you are on your own driveway around Yardley Wood, leave the vehicle where it stands.
Already started? Pull over when it is sensible, then switch off. On the M42, under 5 miles from Yardley Wood, that means the next exit. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Birmingham, under 5 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Yardley Wood.
When we turn up around Yardley Wood, what takes place?
By Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Primary School, near Yardley Wood Library or on your own driveway: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our engineers come to it. Which liquid went in, the quantity, and if it ran: we ask because those answers decide the work and quote. No one heads out before you've heard our price over the phone.
Then the tank is drained and the fuel system rinsed thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more here than with petrol. Filter flushed or, if it must be, replaced; fresh diesel in; and then a check of the car. Before we go, we start the engine and check that it is running properly.
If the engine hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. The insurer usually wants the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours once the job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Misfuelling cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Yardley Wood
Yardley Wood is a suburban area in the West Midlands, situated near the River Rea and close to the city of Birmingham. Yardley Wood has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are predominant, and the area is relatively flat, with an average elevation of 127 metres. Yardley Wood is located near several other residential areas, including Billesley, Warstock, and Billesley Common, and is about 4.6 miles from Birmingham city centre. Yardley Wood is also within commuting distance of London, which is approximately 96.9 miles away.
Yardley Wood and West Midlands: AdBlue drains across the area
Warstock and Billesley Common are among the places around Yardley Wood, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, throughout B postcodes. Fastest of all: quote a B14 4 postcode to the van.
There's no need to move the vehicle. The drain happens on the spot, be it a driveway, a road by Our Lady of Lourdes, or a lay-by towards Trittiford Park. Guessing doesn't help behind Haven Church, close to a boundary, or anywhere awkward to pin down; ring and ask.
The short version for Yardley Wood people
Pour nothing till you've read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave the car off then call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it sits, anywhere across West Midlands.