Why It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Atworth
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case set this page down a moment, leave the ignition and motor off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Normally, if your motor hasn't turned, it is drained and fully flushed where your vehicle is around Atworth. The rest of this page explains why it takes place and how to make sure it does not — handy if you're reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Plenty of newer diesels on the roads about Atworth and Norrington Common carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. Your exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the gas to fresh it, from its own tank.
There's a filler for each tank. Many of motors share a single flap for both, whereas others move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled at each filling station visit, again and again. Rarely filled, AdBlue normally goes in out of a bottle, tipped by someone who has to stop and think what filler it needs. It is in the gap that the slip lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Atworth: how it takes place
It's rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from your car, and running out means limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Chapel Rise, perhaps at The White Hart on the way home that evening.
Then the car is strange. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
No part halts the tip after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it occurs in Purlpit or the middle of Atworth, it is the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
A few seconds is all these take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a drive in Broughton Gifford or a forecourt around Atworth.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally isn't. Read it instead of going by position.
- Plenty of vehicles fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Check inside the fuel flap: many motors carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by the diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The previous driver will know. Check when you pick up a hire car or fleet car — from Melksham's car park, say — not once the warning appears.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Wiltshire that is.
- Stop on level, motor off, with time in hand — not hurried on the side of Godwins Close.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, yes, yet 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.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Find at stage two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? So stop right there. Leave out stage five entirely.
Atworth: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with not starting your engine. The fuel pump starts on many diesels the moment your ignition is switched on — and so leave it off. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
The staff at Texaco, BP or another forecourt will usually lend a hand pushing the car away when you ask. On your own drive in Atworth? Then the vehicle stays put.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your engine has already run. Atworth sits under 10 miles from the M4; there, use the next exit. A short hop across Atworth is a smaller job than a run towards Bath, under 10 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
What happens when we turn up in Atworth
Anywhere the vehicle came to rest, be it by Churchfields, the Village School, beside Atworth Village Hall or on your own drive, the van comes to it. We ask what got in, about how much, and if it has run, because the answers settle the work and the quote. Nobody sets off until you have heard our price by phone.
Emptying that tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the 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 with AdBlue than with petrol. A test is last: before that, fresh diesel is added, and your filter is flushed or replaced as needed. We do not go until it has been started and is running correctly.
If your motor has not 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. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents an insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. While we travel, have a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Atworth and where it is
Atworth is a small village in Wiltshire, situated inland at an elevation of 71 metres, approximately 7 miles from the city of Bath. Atworth has a population of around 795 people, with predominantly detached housing. Atworth is close to nearby places such as Purlpit, Pie Corner, and Whitley, and is about 89 miles west of London.
Atworth and Wiltshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Pie Corner and Whitley are among the places around Atworth, a rural village, that the same teams cover, over SN postcodes. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting SN12 8.
There's no need to move the car. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street close to Atworth Independent Church, a lay-by on the way to Atworth Recreation Ground, a driveway. Assuming doesn't help behind St Michael and All Angels, on a boundary, or anywhere awkward to pin down; ring and check.
The short version for Atworth motorists
Before you pour, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere in Wiltshire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same — so leave it off and phone 0333 366 0103.