How It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Ashton Vale
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then set this page down a moment, leave your ignition and motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. Caught before your motor runs, it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Ashton Vale. Reading before the event? In that case what follows covers why it happens and what to prevent it happening at all.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Diesel feeds your motor — yet plenty of newer diesels seen round Ashton Vale and Uplands hold a second liquid too. The exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the gas to clean them, from its own tank.
Different tanks, different fillers. Plenty of vehicles have a single flap for both, while others move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, your diesel side is topped up constantly. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less commonly. The error lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place around Ashton Vale
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 letting it run out leads to limp mode — so a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Risdale Road, or at The Robins on the way home after work.
The old car's filler is where the hand goes — yet a rental car, a new car or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That is the second thing: a new car.
Nothing halts the pour after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Ashton Vale or out in Bedminster Down.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Look at these before pouring, at a forecourt in Ashton Vale or a driveway over in Headley Park. Seconds, no more.
- Position misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually don't.
- Plenty of motors fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- Can't see it beside your diesel inlet? Then look beneath the bonnet or in your boot — the owner's manual will say which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Parson Street? Ask the person who drove the vehicle last before you set off, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
When the light goes on, wherever in Bristol, follow this routine.
- Turn off after you park — flat ground, motor stopped, and not in a rush by Trevanna Road at the roadside.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew it. It seems daft. It does the trick.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before you start your car, shut the cap and check a second time that the diesel cap was never opened off.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Do not go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Ashton Vale?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with no starting the engine. Keep your ignition off as well, because on plenty of diesels switching it on by itself runs the fuel pump. Thinning it with extra diesel fails, because AdBlue settles to the base instead of mixing — and that's where your fuel is pulled from.
On a forecourt — Sainsbury Fuel, Texaco or any other — the attendants will normally help push the vehicle away, if you ask. Your own driveway in Ashton Vale is where it stays.
Already started? Stop once it is safe, then switch off. Ashton Vale lies under 5 miles from the M32; on it, use the first junction. Distance counts — a short hop across Ashton Vale is a smaller job than driving under 3 miles to Bristol — so say roughly how far it went.
What takes place when we arrive in Ashton Vale
Our technicians come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Ashton Vale Primary School, near Ashton Vale Community Centre or on your own drive. Our engineers ask what was put in, about how much, and whether it has run, because those replies decide the work and the quote. That quote comes on the call, before any van leaves.
Next: draining, then a full flush of the whole system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. Testing comes last: before that, clean diesel goes in, and your filter is cleaned or replaced as needed. We don't go until it has been fired up and is running properly.
If the engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. The insurer will ask for the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. It is worth checking your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Ashton Vale
Ashton Vale is a suburban area located on the riverside in Bristol, with a mix of terraced housing and local amenities. Ashton Vale sits at a low elevation of around 12 metres, close to the city centre and nearby areas like Bedminster Down and Bower Ashton. Ashton Vale is connected to the wider region by its proximity to Bristol, which is just 1.8 miles away. Ashton Vale has a population of approximately 2771 residents, living in a predominantly residential community.
AdBlue drains about Ashton Vale, and Bristol beyond
Being a residential suburb, Ashton Vale has the same vans as nearby places — Bower Ashton, Ashton Gate — right through BS postcodes and the wider area beyond. Quote a postcode that starts BS3 2, and the van gets there quickest.
Your car remains where it is. Wherever it sits — beside David Lloyd Leisure Centre, in a layby heading to Gores Marsh Park, on a drive — that is where it is emptied. Guessing doesn't help at the back of Salem, close to a boundary, or anywhere awkward to describe; phone and ask.
The short version for Ashton Vale people
Tip nothing till you've read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave the vehicle off then call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it sits, anywhere across Bristol.