AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Alvington: Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and the ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, carried out just where your car sits in Alvington, is normally what it needs when caught before the motor runs. The remainder of this page covers why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't — useful if you are reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel goes to the engine — yet plenty of modern diesels driven around Alvington and Preston Plucknett hold a second liquid too. Your exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the fumes to clean it, from a separate tank.
There is a filler on each tank. Many of cars share a single flap for the two, whereas others move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled on each forecourt visit, again and again. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less regularly. The mistake lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs in Alvington
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
On a driveway off Bluebell Road before work, or in the car park at Airfield Tavern heading home: that is where the hurried top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it's empty, limp mode kicks in.
Then your car is strange. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Third, the bottle fits: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in as readily, and after the tip starts, nothing halts it. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Alvington or out in Lufton.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Lower Odcombe or a forecourt in Alvington, check these. They take a few seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually is not. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Check inside your fuel flap: many vehicles have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows where it lives if the filler is not next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park at Yeovil Pen Mill? Ask the person who drove the car last before leaving, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
Wherever across Somerset the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Turn off after you park — flat ground, engine off, and not in a rush by Campion Drive at the roadside.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly. It works.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Stop when your tank fills or the bottle is empty; until then, tip slowly through its built-in spout.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Skip stage five altogether.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Alvington?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your motor. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels the moment the ignition is switched on — so keep it off. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is drawn from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
The attendants at Asda, BP or any forecourt will usually lend a hand pushing the vehicle clear when asked. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive around Alvington.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your engine has already run. On the M5, under 25 miles from Alvington, that means the next junction. Distance matters — a short hop across Alvington is a smaller job than driving under 25 miles towards Wells — so say about how far it went.
When our engineers get there around Alvington, what happens?
Anywhere the car came to rest, be it by Kingfisher Primary School, near South Somerset Heritage Collection or on your own drive, the van comes to it. Both the work and our quote rest on three answers — what liquid, which quantity, and if it's run — so we ask. You hear that quote on the phone, before anyone sets off.
The fuel system is then purged thoroughly, once the tank is cleared. 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. Filter flushed or, where needed, replaced; fresh diesel in; then a check of your car. Before we leave, our technicians start it and make sure that it's running smoothly.
If your engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. No money in advance; you settle up that day. At the end, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies — so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Alvington
Alvington is a suburban area in Somerset, situated inland at an elevation of 66 metres, and is located near the nearby places of Lufton, Houndstone, and Brympton dEvercy. Alvington has a population of approximately 2775 residents and is characterized by predominantly detached housing. Alvington is also within commuting distance to the city of Wells, which is around 18 miles away. Alvington is positioned in the South West region of England, about 117 miles from London.
AdBlue drains around Alvington and across Somerset
Throughout BA postcodes, our vans covering Alvington — a residential suburb — work the nearby spots too, Brympton dEvercy and Houndstone among them. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting BA22 8.
Shifting your car is not necessary. Anywhere it sits — near Huish Park, on a lay-by heading to Stourton Rec, on a drive — that is where it gets cleared. Assuming won't help behind St James, on a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe; phone and ask.
For Alvington people, the short version
Read the cap before you pour. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere around Somerset, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — so leave the vehicle off and ring 0333 366 0103.