Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Bourton-on-the-Water: Why It Happens
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and the ignition off and call 0333 366 0103. Around Bourton-on-the-Water, finding it before your engine turns usually leaves draining and a full flush where it stands. The rest of this page covers why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't — useful if you're reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Many current diesels on the roads about Bourton-on-the-Water and Little Rissington carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, and there spraying treats the gas.
There's a filler for every tank. Under one flap, side by side: that's the layout on a lot of cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in your boot instead. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less regularly, normally from a bottle, and usually by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. It is in that gap that the error happens.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank happens around Bourton-on-the-Water
It is hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out altogether, your vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Moore Road before work, or in the car park outside Duke of Wellington on the way home.
Next, your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old motor — because a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers where your last one didn't.
Third, the spout fits: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in as easily, and after the pour starts, nothing stops it. Whether it happens in Nethercote or the middle of Bourton-on-the-Water, it is the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a drive in Upper Slaughter or a forecourt around Bourton-on-the-Water.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps are often blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally do not.
- Many cars fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Open the filler flap and look for a label — many vehicles mark what goes in which inlet right there.
- The handbook shows where it lives if the filler is not next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Kingham.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
Anywhere around Gloucestershire the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Not in a rush on the side of High Street, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park and switch off first.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap works — after you've found your filler and read the cap.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where both sit under a flap, make sure it is closed before the bottle comes up.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Before you start the car, shut the cap and check again that your diesel cap was never opened off.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Don't go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Bourton-on-the-Water?
Brief order, then. First: the motor remains unstarted. Leave the ignition off as well, since on many diesels it alone starts your fuel pump. Thinning it with extra diesel won't work, because AdBlue settles to the bottom instead of blending — and that's where your fuel is pulled from.
Ask the attendants to help roll the car away from the pump if you're on a forecourt — the The Co-operative Food, the Texaco or somewhere else. Your own driveway around Bourton-on-the-Water is the place it stays.
When the motor has run already, pull over safely and turn it off. On the M5, under 25 miles from Bourton-on-the-Water, that means the next junction. About how far did it go? Hopping across Bourton-on-the-Water is smaller work than a trip of under 25 miles towards Gloucester, so tell us.
When we turn up in Bourton-on-the-Water, what happens?
Outside Bourton-on-the-Water Primary School, near War Memorial or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our engineers come to it. Which liquid was put in, the amount, and whether it ran: we ask since those replies decide the work and price. On the phone call itself, you are told our price — ahead of anything else.
Next: a drain, then a full flush of the whole system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and neither clears out unaided. That is why it matters more. A test comes at the end: before that, clean diesel goes in, and your filter is cleaned or replaced if necessary. Your engine is fired up next and tested to be sure it runs correctly, all before our engineers go.
If the motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Your insurer usually wants an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours once the job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Bourton-on-the-Water and where it is
Bourton-on-the-Water is a village situated in the Cotswolds region of Gloucestershire, set beside the River Windrush at an elevation of 131 metres. Bourton-on-the-Water has a population of around 561 people and is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock. Bourton-on-the-Water is located near several other small villages, including Nethercote, Lower Slaughter, and Wyck Rissington, and is approximately 20.9 miles from Gloucester. Bourton-on-the-Water is also about 74.5 miles west of London.
AdBlue drains across Gloucestershire, Bourton-on-the-Water included
As a village, Bourton-on-the-Water has the same vans as surrounding areas — Lower Slaughter, Wyck Rissington — right through GL postcodes and the wider area beyond. Fastest of all: quote a GL54 2 postcode to the van.
The car stays put. Wherever it stands — beside Cotswold Motoring Museum & Toy Collection, in a lay-by en route to Marshmouth Nature Reserve, on a drive — that is where it gets drained. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of St Lawrence's Church, ring and ask instead of assuming.
For Bourton-on-the-Water drivers, the short version
First, the cap; after that, the tip. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave the car off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it sits, anywhere in Gloucestershire.