Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Bathampton: Why It Occurs
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then put this page down for now, leave the ignition and motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. In Bathampton, catching it before your motor turns usually leaves draining and a full flush where it stands. Reading before the event? Then what follows explains how it happens and how to prevent it happening at all.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Many newer diesels around Lambridge, as well as Bathampton, run on two liquids; your engine takes just your diesel. Your exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the fumes to clean it, from a separate tank.
Each tank has a filler of its own. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. Filling your diesel side at the pump goes on all the time. Much less regularly, the AdBlue side gets filled — normally from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. It's in that gap that the mistake happens.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Bathampton: how it takes place
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from the vehicle, and running out leads to limp mode — so a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Holcombe Vale, perhaps at The George on the way home that evening.
New-to-you motors are next, as well. Hire cars, new vehicles and company motors place their fillers differently, and habit reaches for the cap it used on the old one.
Lastly, the bottle goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in as readily, and once the pour begins, no part halts it. Whether it happens in Batheaston or the middle of Bathampton, it is the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Be it a Bathampton forecourt or a driveway out in Lower Swainswick, spend a few seconds on these before any goes in.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Trust the cap, not its position.
- Plenty of motors give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Look inside the fuel flap: many cars have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- Cannot find it next to the diesel filler? Then look beneath the bonnet or inside your boot — the owner's manual will say which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Bath Spa, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
On the day the warning appears — anywhere you are in Somerset — a routine to follow.
- Stop on level, engine off, with time to spare — never rushing on the side of Holcombe Lane.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- The diesel cap remains on. When both share a flap, confirm it's closed before lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the car, close the cap and look a second time that your diesel cap was never came off.
Find at stage two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? Then stop right there. Step five stays out.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Bathampton already?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with not starting the motor. Keep the ignition off too, because on plenty of diesels it by itself starts your fuel pump. Thinning it with extra diesel fails, because AdBlue sinks to the base instead of blending — and that is where the fuel is sucked from.
Ask the attendants to help push your car away from the pump if you're at a forecourt — the Esso, the Essar or somewhere else. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway in Bathampton.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your motor has already run. The next junction is the place to come off if you're on the M4, under 10 miles from Bathampton. A short hop across Bathampton is a smaller job than a run towards Bath, under 3 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
When our engineers arrive around Bathampton, what happens?
The van comes to your car wherever it has come to rest — your own drive, beside Bathampton Methodist Church, or by Bathampton Primary School. What liquid went in, the quantity, and whether it ran: our technicians ask because the answers decide both work and price. That price comes over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
Next: a drain, then a full flush of the whole system. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own. Filter cleaned or, if needed, replaced; clean diesel in; then a test of the car. Before we leave, our technicians fire it up and check that it is running properly.
Unstarted cars mostly mean a half-hour visit from arrival. The kit is fine on a busy forecourt, and hushed enough for a driveway late at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. While we travel, have a look at your policy; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Bathampton
Bathampton is a village situated on the banks of the River Avon in Somerset, with a mix of detached housing and other residential properties. Bathampton sits near the city of Bath, approximately 1.8 miles away, and is close to other nearby places such as Batheaston and Bathford. Bathampton has a population of around 1441 people and is located at an elevation of 61 metres above sea level. Bathampton is part of the wider South West region of England, about 94.8 miles from London.
Bathampton and Somerset: AdBlue drains across the area
Bathampton is a village, and the vans that cover it also work the places near it, Bathford and Bailbrook among them, across the BA postcode area. Quickest of all: quote a BA2 6 postcode to the van.
The vehicle doesn't need to move. Anywhere it stands — near Bathampton Village Hall, in a layby en route to King Edward's School (sports ground), at home — that's where it is drained. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of 18th Bath Scout Hall, ring and ask instead of assuming.
In short, for Bathampton motorists
First, the cap; then, the tip. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere around Somerset, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — and so leave it off and ring 0333 366 0103.