AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Ashgrove: Why It Occurs and How to Stop It
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then set this page down for now, leave the ignition and motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it's generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Ashgrove. If you are 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 vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Many newer diesels around White Ox Mead, as well as Ashgrove, run on two liquids; your engine takes just your diesel. Your exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the gas to clean it, from its own tank.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, side by side: that is the arrangement on a lot of cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in your boot instead. Topping up your diesel side at the petrol pump happens constantly. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less commonly, usually from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. The error lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank happens around Ashgrove
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the vehicle, and running dry means limp mode — so a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Ashgrove, perhaps outside Prince of Wales on the way home after work.
Then the car is strange. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spouted bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, after begun, carries on. It takes a few seconds, be it out in Hillside or bang in the heart of Ashgrove.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
A few seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Carlingcott or a forecourt in Ashgrove.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps are often blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually do not.
- The size. On many cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Look for it.
- The handbook says where it lives if your filler is not next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Oldfield Park, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Somerset that is.
- Stop on level, engine off, with time in hand — not rushing on the side of Dunkerton Hill.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap works — once you have found your filler and read it.
- The two behind a single flap? Then confirm the cap on the diesel side stays closed before raising the bottle.
- Stop once the tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; before that, pour gently through its own spout.
- Before you start your car, shut the cap and look a second time that the diesel cap was never opened off.
Find at the second or third stage that the bottle went into the wrong tank? That's where you stop. Don't carry on to stage five.
Ashgrove: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Short list, then. First: the motor remains unstarted. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels the moment your ignition goes on — so leave it off. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is drawn from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
On a forecourt — Murco, Shell or another — the attendants will usually help push the vehicle away, when you ask. On your own drive around Ashgrove? Then your car stays put.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. On the M32, under 15 miles from Ashgrove, that means the next junction. A short hop across Ashgrove is a smaller job than a run towards Bath, under 10 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
Our arrival in Ashgrove, and what happens next
Our technicians come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Peasedown St John Primary School, close to St. Joseph's Catholic Church or on your own drive. Both the work and our quote depend on three replies — which liquid, what amount, and if it's run — so our technicians ask. No one heads out before you have had the quote by phone.
The system is then cleaned thoroughly, after your tank is cleared. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and neither clears out by itself. Hence it matters more. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Before we go, we fire it up and check that it is running correctly.
Using pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where the motor hasn't run need roughly half an hour once our technicians arrive. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Before we get there, take a look at your insurance documents; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Ashgrove itself
Ashgrove is a suburban area situated inland in Somerset, approximately 5 miles from the city of Bath. Ashgrove sits at an elevation of around 160 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation in the area. Ashgrove is located near other nearby places such as Hillside, Peasedown St John, and Lower Peasedown, and is about 99.6 miles west of London.
AdBlue drains round Ashgrove, and Somerset beyond
Ashgrove is a residential suburb, and our teams that cover it also work the towns near it, Peasedown St John and Lower Peasedown among them, across the BA postcode area. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting BA2 8.
No need to move your car. We drain it where it is — a side street close to Peasedown St John Christadelphian Hall, a lay-by on the way to Peasedown St John Cricket Club, a driveway. Assuming won't help behind Beacon Hall, close to a border, or anywhere hard to describe; ring and ask.
For Ashgrove motorists, the short version
Read the cap before you pour. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave the car off and call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it waits, anywhere in Somerset.