AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Bear Flat: How It Occurs and How to Avoid It
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then set this page aside a moment, keep the ignition and motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. In Bear Flat, catching it before your engine turns usually means a drain and a full flush on the spot. The rest of this page explains why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't — handy if you're reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel goes to the motor — yet many modern diesels driven about Bear Flat and Lyncombe Vale carry another liquid too. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust gas to clean it.
Each tank comes with one filler of its own. Some motors keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot more have the two side by side under one flap. Diesel goes in at each forecourt call-out, again and again. The AdBlue side is topped up far less regularly, normally from a bottle, and normally by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake grows in that gap between the two.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Bear Flat: how it occurs
Carelessness rarely causes it. Instead is three things coming up at once.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out completely, the car drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Devonshire Buildings before work, or in the car park at The Devonshire Arms on the way home.
Then, the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old vehicle — since a hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't.
A spouted bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, after begun, keeps on. Bloomfield or the middle of Bear Flat: it takes the same few seconds either way.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A couple of seconds is all these take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Fox Hill or a forecourt around Bear Flat.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on many cars, the AdBlue one.
- Look inside your fuel flap: many motors have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows which it lives when your filler is not next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park at Bath Spa? Ask whoever drove the car last before you set off, not once the light goes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
Anywhere around Somerset the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Not in a rush on the side of St Luke's Road, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park and switch off first.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, perhaps, but it does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where the two sit under a flap, confirm it is shut before lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Never go on to step five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Bear Flat?
The short order of things, starting with no starting the engine. Keep the ignition off too, because on many diesels switching it on by itself runs the pump. Topping up with diesel won't weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the bottom of your tank, right where fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — Esso, Sainsbury's or any other — the staff will normally help roll the vehicle away, if you ask. On your own drive in Bear Flat? Then the car stays where it is.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Leave the M4 — under 10 miles out of Bear Flat — at the next junction. Distance counts — a quick hop across Bear Flat makes a smaller job than driving under a mile to Bath — so say roughly how far it went.
What takes place when our technicians arrive in Bear Flat
We come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Moorlands Infant School, close to St Luke's or on your own drive. Which fluid went in, the quantity, and if it ran: our technicians ask since the answers decide both work and quote. On the call itself, you hear our price — ahead of dispatch.
After that: draining, then a thorough flush of the entire system. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and none of it clears away by itself. Hence it counts more. Once the fuel filter is cleaned — or replaced, if required — fresh diesel goes in, and then the vehicle gets tested. The engine is started next and checked to be sure it runs smoothly, all before our technicians head off.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour once we get there, provided your engine hasn't run — and the pumps our engineers use are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet at night outside a house. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork an insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. It is worth looking at your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Bear Flat itself
Bear Flat is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Somerset, close to the city of Bath. Bear Flat has a mix of housing types, but is predominantly characterized by terraced homes. Bear Flat sits at an elevation of around 90 metres, overlooking the surrounding countryside. Bear Flat is located near other suburban areas, including Bloomfield and Beechen Cliff.
AdBlue drains in Bear Flat and across Somerset
Beechen Cliff and Moorlands are among the towns around Bear Flat, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, over BA postcodes. Quote a postcode that starts BA2 4, and our van arrives quickest.
No need to shift your car. Anywhere it sits — near Beechen Cliff Methodist Church, on a layby heading to Bloomfield Green, on a drive — that's where it is emptied. Guessing won't help behind Bruton Community Hall, on a border, or somewhere awkward to pin down; phone and check.
Bear Flat drivers: the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it where it stands, anywhere in Somerset: switch the car off and phone 0333 366 0103.