Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Avoncliff: Why It Occurs
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and your ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103. Around Avoncliff, catching it before your motor runs usually leaves draining and a full flush on the spot. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest 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
Plenty of newer diesels in Lower Westwood, as well as Avoncliff, run on two fluids; your engine gets only the diesel. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, and there spraying treats the fumes.
Different tanks, different fillers. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the layout on many vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. The diesel side is topped up at the petrol pump all the time. Far less often, the AdBlue side is filled — mostly from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. That gap is where the error lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place in Avoncliff
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
On a drive off Chestnut Grove before work, or in the car park outside The Cross Guns heading home: that's where the hurried top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low the vehicle warns you, and once it's gone, limp mode follows.
The old car's cap is where your hand goes — but a rental car, a new car or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That is a second factor: an unfamiliar vehicle.
Lastly, the bottle goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in as readily, and after the tip begins, no part halts it. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Avoncliff or out in Upper Westwood.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Be it a Avoncliff forecourt or a drive over in Winsley, spend a few seconds on these before anything is poured in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually isn't. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- On plenty of vehicles, size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Check for it.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler is if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside the nearest station, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
For the day the light comes on — wherever you are in Wiltshire — a simple routine to follow.
- Turn off once parked — flat ground, engine off, and not rushed by Bobbin Lane at the roadside.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, yes, yet it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave it on.
- Finish when the tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; until then, pour gently using the own spout.
- Before starting the car, close the cap and check again that your diesel cap never came off.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Don't carry on to step five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Avoncliff already?
Short list, then. Top of that: your motor stays unstarted. Do not switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Thinning it with more diesel won't work, because AdBlue sinks to the base instead of mixing — and that is where your fuel is sucked from.
Ask the attendants to help push the car away from the pump if you are at a forecourt — the Texaco, the Murco or somewhere else. If you're on your own drive around Avoncliff, leave the car where it sits.
Already started? Pull over once it's safe, then switch off. On the M4, under 15 miles from Avoncliff, that means the next junction. A short hop across Avoncliff is a smaller job than a run towards Bath, under 5 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
Avoncliff: what takes place when we get there
Outside Westwood-with-Iford Primary School, near Avoncliff Aqueduct or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, our engineers come to it. Both the work and the price depend on three answers — which fluid, what amount, and if it has run — so our engineers ask. You get that price by phone, before anyone heads out.
Then that tank is cleared and the fuel system flushed thoroughly. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and none of it washes out by itself. Hence it matters more. Filter flushed or, where needed, swapped; clean diesel in; and then a check of your car. Before leaving, we start the engine and confirm that it is running correctly.
If your engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Your insurer usually wants an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both once the job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. Before we get there, have a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Avoncliff and where it is
Avoncliff is a small hamlet situated on the banks of the River Avon in Wiltshire, with a mix of detached housing and rural scenery. Avoncliff sits at an elevation of 56 metres, close to the nearby villages of Upper Westwood and Turleigh. Avoncliff is located near the city of Bath, which is approximately 4.6 miles away. Avoncliff has a population of around 538 residents, living in a predominantly rural setting.
AdBlue drains around Avoncliff and across Wiltshire
Avoncliff is a rural hamlet, and the teams that cover it also work the towns around it, Turleigh and Westwood among them, across the BA postcode area. Quickest of all: give a BA15 2 postcode to the van.
Moving the car is not needed. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Westwood Park, a side street close to Willow Maze: our technicians drain it where it sits. Awkward to explain, like the back of Tess? Close to a county line? Asking is better than guessing, so phone.
In short, for Avoncliff people
Before you tip, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere in Wiltshire.