How It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Blakeney Hill
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and your ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. Normally, if your motor has not run, it is emptied and fully flushed where the car sits around Blakeney Hill. Reading in advance? In that case what follows covers how it comes about and what to prevent it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel feeds your motor — but many newer diesels seen around Blakeney Hill and Viney Hill carry another liquid as well. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, and there spraying treats the fumes.
There is a filler on each tank. 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. Diesel goes in on each forecourt visit, again and again. The AdBlue side is filled far less often, normally from a bottle, and usually by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. It's in that gap that the mistake happens.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank occur around Blakeney Hill?
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from your car, and running dry leads to limp mode — so a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Hitchings, perhaps at The King's Head on the way home after work.
Next, your hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old motor — since a hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
No part halts the pour after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Blakeney Hill or out in Blakeney.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Look at these first, on a forecourt around Blakeney Hill or a drive over in Bledisloe. A few seconds, no more.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Trust the cap, not its position.
- The size. On many cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Lift the filler flap and look for a label — many cars mark what belongs in which inlet right there.
- The handbook says which it is if the filler is not next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at Lydney, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
When the light comes on, anywhere across Gloucestershire, follow this routine.
- Pull in on level, engine off, with time to spare — not hurried on the side of Cinderford Road.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, yes, yet it works.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Tip 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 the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Do not go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Blakeney Hill?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your engine. The fuel pump runs on many diesels as soon as your ignition goes on — so keep it off. Filling up with diesel won't dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the base of that tank, right where fuel is taken from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it is the Co-op or the Central Garage, ask the attendants to help roll your car away from the petrol pump. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive in Blakeney Hill.
Already run? Pull over once it is sensible, then switch off. Blakeney Hill lies under 10 miles from the M5; there, take the first junction. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Blakeney Hill is less work than a run of under 15 miles towards Gloucester, and so tell us.
When our engineers arrive around Blakeney Hill, what occurs?
Our engineers come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Blakeney Primary School, close to All Saints, Blakeney or on your own drive. Which liquid went in, the quantity, and whether it ran: we ask because those answers decide both work and price. That price comes on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
Draining your tank comes next, then a full flush of your system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more here than with petrol. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Before we leave, our engineers fire it up and make sure that it's running smoothly.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour after we get there, provided your motor hasn't run — and the pumps our engineers use are fine on a live forecourt yet quiet after dark outside a house. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork your insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Wrong-fuel cover is included in many insurance policies — so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Blakeney Hill and where it is
Blakeney Hill is a suburban area located near the coast in Gloucestershire, with Blakeney Hill sitting at an elevation of 53 metres above sea level. Blakeney Hill is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting the area's residential nature. Blakeney Hill is situated near the village of Blakeney and other nearby places such as Nibley Green and Brains Green, and is approximately 12 miles from Gloucester.
AdBlue drains round Blakeney Hill, and Gloucestershire beyond
Over GL postcodes, the teams that cover Blakeney Hill — a residential suburb — work the nearby places too, Brains Green and Nibley Green included. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting GL15 4.
There's no need to move the car. Anywhere it stands — near All Saints, on a lay-by heading to Cockshoot Wood, on a drive — that is where it gets drained. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Exposed Roman Road? Close to a county line? Checking beats guessing, so ring.
The short version for Blakeney Hill people
Always, the cap; after that, the pour. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Keep the car switched off and call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, across Gloucestershire.