Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Arnos Vale: Why It Happens
Pause reading for a moment if the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Normally, when your motor hasn't run, it is drained and thoroughly rinsed where the vehicle is around Arnos Vale. If you're 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 vehicle need its own filler?
Plenty of modern diesels around St Annes, like those in Arnos Vale, run on two liquids; your engine gets only the 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.
Each tank comes with one filler of its own. Other cars put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others place the two side by side behind one flap. Filling the diesel side at the petrol pump goes on constantly. Far less commonly, the AdBlue side gets filled — normally from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. The mistake grows in that gap between them.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank take place around Arnos Vale?
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
Haste follows from the warning. The car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a drive off Sandy Park Road, or on the way home in the car park at Black Castle.
Then your car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
No part halts the pour once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It takes a few seconds, whether in St Philips Marsh or right in the heart of Arnos Vale.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Check these before pouring, at a forecourt in Arnos Vale or a driveway over in Knowle. A few seconds, that's all.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Trust the cap, not its position.
- On many cars, the size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of cars say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows which it is if the filler is not next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- The previous driver will know. Ask as you collect a hire car or company car — from Bristol Temple Meads's car park, perhaps — not once the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
For the day the warning appears — wherever you are around Bristol — a simple routine to use.
- Turn off after you park — flat ground, motor stopped, and not rushed by Bloomfield Road at the roadside.
- 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.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Never carry on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Arnos Vale?
Brief list, then. Top of it: the motor stays off. Do not switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is sucked from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it's the Shell or the Sainsbury's, ask the attendants to help roll the vehicle away from the petrol pump. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive around Arnos Vale.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Leave the M32 — under 3 miles out of Arnos Vale — at the first exit. About how far did it go? Crossing Arnos Vale is smaller work than a trip of under 3 miles to Bristol, and so say.
Our arrival around Arnos Vale, and what takes place next
Our van comes to the vehicle wherever it stopped — your own driveway, beside Arnos Court Stable Gateway, or outside Hillcrest Primary School. Which fluid went in, the quantity, and whether it ran: we ask because the replies decide both work and price. No one sets off before you've heard our quote over the phone.
Emptying that tank comes next, followed by a full flush of your system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more here than with petrol. After the fuel filter has been cleaned — or replaced, if needed — clean diesel goes in, and then your vehicle gets tested. Before we go, our technicians fire it up and make sure that it is running properly.
If the motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents your insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. It's worth checking your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Arnos Vale itself
Arnos Vale is a suburban area in Bristol, situated on the banks of the River Avon at an elevation of around 17 metres. Arnos Vale is characterized by its predominantly terraced housing stock, reflecting the typical architectural style of many Bristol neighbourhoods. Arnos Vale is located close to the city centre, approximately 1.9 miles from Bristol, and is near other local areas such as St Philips Marsh and Kensington Park.
Arnos Vale and Bristol: AdBlue drains across the area
Arnos Vale is a residential suburb, and our vans that cover it also work the towns near it, Kensington Park and Upper Knowle among them, across the BS postcode area. Quickest of all: give a BS4 3 postcode to the van.
There's no need to move your car. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Arnos Court Park, a side street close to Black Castle: we drain the vehicle where it is. Tricky to explain, like the back of Martin Parr Foundation? Close to a county line? Checking is better than guessing, so ring.
Arnos Vale people: the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere across Bristol, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless — so leave the car off then ring 0333 366 0103.