Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Borrowell: Why It Happens
Leave the motor and ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. A drain plus a thorough flush, carried out right where the car stands around Borrowell, is normally what it needs if found before the motor runs. 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 doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of modern diesels in Abbey Fields, like those in Borrowell, run on two fluids; your motor gets only your diesel. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There is a filler for each tank. Some vehicles keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty more place the two together behind one flap. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less commonly, normally from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank happens around Borrowell
It is seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a driveway off St Nicholas Avenue before work, or in the car park outside The Gauntlet on the way home: that's where the hurried top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the car warns you, and once it's gone, limp mode follows.
Then the vehicle is strange. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
No part halts the pour after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it occurs in St Johns or the middle of Borrowell, it is the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Check these first, at a forecourt in Borrowell or a driveway over in Whitemoor. Seconds, that's all.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally do not.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many cars, the AdBlue one.
- Lift the filler flap and check for a label — plenty of vehicles mark what belongs in which filler right there.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler is if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- The previous driver knows. Ask when you pick up a hire car or company car — at Kenilworth's car park, say — not once the light appears.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Warwickshire that is.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Queen's Road.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you have found your filler and read the cap.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where the two sit under a flap, make sure it's closed before the bottle comes up.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the vehicle, shut the cap and check a second time that your diesel cap never came off.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Step five is out.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Borrowell already?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with no starting the engine. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch it on. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it's the Esso or the Texaco, ask the staff to help push your car clear of the petrol pump. If you are on your own drive around Borrowell, leave the car where it sits.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your motor has already run. On the M40, under 10 miles from Borrowell, that means the next exit. A short hop across Borrowell is a smaller job than a run towards Coventry, under 10 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
Our arrival in Borrowell, and what occurs next
The van reaches your car anywhere it stopped — your own driveway, beside Kenilworth Cemetery, or outside St John's Primary School and Nursery. We ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it has run, since those answers settle the work and our price. On the call itself, you are told our quote — ahead of dispatch.
After that: draining, then a thorough flush of the whole system. More than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: crystals form, some metals are attacked, and none of it clears away on its own, however long it is left. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Then our technicians start the engine and confirm it runs smoothly before we go.
With pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your motor hasn't run take about half an hour once we arrive. Nothing upfront; you settle up that day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Borrowell
Borrowell is a suburban area in Warwickshire, situated approximately 5.8 miles from Coventry and 84.4 miles from London. Borrowell sits at an elevation of around 88 metres, in a gently sloping landscape near the towns of Kenilworth and Abbey End. Borrowell has a population of around 5362 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Borrowell is close to the neighbourhood of St Johns, sharing some local amenities and services.
AdBlue drains across Warwickshire, Borrowell included
As a residential suburb, Borrowell has the same vans as surrounding areas — Kenilworth, Abbey End — all the way through CV postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. Quickest of all: give a CV8 1 postcode to our van.
No need to move the vehicle. The drain takes place on the spot, be it a driveway, a road near Talisman Theatre, or a layby on the way to St. John's Playing Fields. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of St. Francis of Assisi.
For Borrowell people, the short version
Read the cap before you pour. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will empty it where it stands, wherever around Warwickshire: switch the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103.