AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Batheaston: How It Occurs and How to Avoid It
Leave the motor and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Normally, if the motor hasn't run, it's drained and thoroughly purged where your car is around Batheaston. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page explains the reasons it takes place and the how to prevent it for good.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Many current diesels on the roads round Batheaston and Bailbrook carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has a filler of its own. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, the diesel side gets filled constantly. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less regularly. It is in that gap that the error lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank take place in Batheaston?
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
Haste follows from the warning. Your car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a driveway off London Road East, or on the way home in the car park outside George & Dragon.
Then, the hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old car — since a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
Nothing stops the tip after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It takes seconds, be it out in Bathford or bang in the centre of Batheaston.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
A few seconds is all these take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a drive in Lower Swainswick or a forecourt around Batheaston.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally isn't. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- On plenty of cars, the size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Lift the filler flap and check for a label — many vehicles show which belongs in which filler just there.
- Can't see it beside the diesel inlet? In that case check below the bonnet or inside your boot — the owner's manual says which.
- The person who drove the car 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.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
When the light goes on, wherever around Somerset, use this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Bannerdown Road, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park then switch off properly.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, perhaps, yet it works.
- Leave the 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.
- Only after that, start the car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Find at step two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? Then stop just there. Stage five stays out.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Batheaston?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the engine. Don't switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Diluting it with more diesel fails, because AdBlue settles to the bottom rather than blending — and that's where the fuel is pulled from.
The attendants at Esso, Shell or any forecourt will normally lend a hand to push the vehicle clear if asked. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway around Batheaston.
Already started? Pull over once it is sensible, then switch off. On the M4, under 10 miles from Batheaston, that means the next junction. About how far did it go? Hopping across Batheaston is less a job than a run of under 3 miles to Bath, and so say.
What occurs when we get there around Batheaston
By Batheaston Church School, near The Rymes Pavilion or on your own drive: wherever your car has stopped, our engineers come to it. What fluid went in, the amount, and whether it ran: our technicians ask because those replies set both work and price. You get that price on the phone, before anybody heads out.
Emptying your tank comes next, then a full flush of the fuel system. More than with petrol, it counts here: the crystals form, certain metals are attacked, and nothing clears out on its own, no matter how long it sits. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Before leaving, we start the engine and check that it is running smoothly.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour once our engineers get there, provided the engine has not run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a live forecourt yet quiet at night beside a house. Nothing upfront; you settle up that day. At the end, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — and so use the wait to check yours.
About Batheaston, for a moment
Batheaston is a village situated on the banks of the River Avon in Somerset, with a mix of terraced housing and other residential properties. Batheaston lies close to the city of Bath, approximately 2.4 miles to the east, and is connected to nearby villages such as Bathford and Bathampton. Batheaston has a population of around 1590 people and is located at an elevation of 23 metres above sea level. Batheaston is part of the wider Bath urban area, but retains its own distinct character as a riverside village.
Batheaston and Somerset: AdBlue drains across the area
Batheaston is a village, and the teams that cover it also work the towns around it, Northend and Bathampton among them, across the BA postcode area. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting BA1 7.
Shifting the car isn't needed. Wherever it sits — beside Next Thing Education Camps, in a layby en route to Batheaston Gardens, at home — that's where it is cleared. Tricky to explain, like the back of Batheaston Youth Club? Close to a county line? Asking beats assuming, so ring.
Batheaston people: the short version
First, the cap; after that, the tip. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Leave it switched off and call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, across Somerset.