AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Box: How It Occurs and How to Prevent It
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case put this page aside for now, keep your ignition and motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Box. The rest of this page covers why it takes place and how to make sure it does not — useful if you are reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Many newer diesels on the roads about Box and Ashley carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust stream and cleans it.
There's a filler for each tank. Plenty of cars share a single flap for both, whereas others put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, the diesel side is topped up constantly. Far less frequently, the AdBlue side gets filled — mostly from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. That gap is where the error lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank take place around Box?
Carelessness rarely explains it. Instead is three things coming up at once.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, your vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Market Place before work, or in the car park outside The Queens Head on the way home.
The old car's filler is where your hand goes — yet a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That is the second thing: a new car.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the tip after it has started. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Box or out in Washwell.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A few seconds is all these take — so check them before you pour anything, on a drive in Ditteridge or a forecourt in Box.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually is not. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- On plenty of cars, size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Open the flap and check for a label — many cars mark what belongs in which filler right there.
- The handbook says where it lives when the filler isn't next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Ask 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 at Bradford-On-Avon.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
On the day the warning appears — anywhere it is across Wiltshire — a routine to use.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Chapel Lane.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap works — once you've located the filler and read the cap.
- Both under a single flap? So make sure the cap on your diesel filler stays shut ahead of raising the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the vehicle, shut the cap and check again that your diesel cap never came off.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Do not go on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Box already?
Short order, then. Top of it: your engine remains off. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch the vehicle on. Filling up with diesel will not weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of the tank, just where fuel is drawn from.
The staff at Shell, Texaco or another forecourt will normally help pushing the vehicle clear when you ask. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive around Box.
Where the motor has run already, stop somewhere safe and turn it off. On the M4, under 10 miles from Box, that means the next junction. Distance counts — a short hop across Box makes a smaller job than driving under 10 miles to Bath — so tell us roughly how far it went.
Our arrival in Box, and what occurs next
Our van reaches your car wherever it stopped — your own driveway, near Box Methodist Church, or outside Box Church of England Primary School. We ask what went in, about how much, and if it has run, because those answers determine this work and our quote. During the call itself, you are told the quote — before anything else.
The system is then rinsed thoroughly, after the tank is cleared. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. A test is last: before that, clean diesel goes in, and the filter is flushed or replaced if necessary. Before we go, we start the engine and check that it is running properly.
With pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where your engine has not run need about half an hour after our engineers are there. No money upfront; you settle up that day. At the end, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. Before we get there, take a look at your insurance documents; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Box itself
Box is a village in Wiltshire, situated on the banks of the Bybrook River at an elevation of around 52 metres. Box lies near the city of Bath, approximately 5 miles to the east, and is surrounded by other small villages such as Washwell and Henley. Box has a population of around 1287 people, predominantly living in semi-detached houses. Box is located in the South West region of England, about 91.7 miles west of London.
Box and Wiltshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout SN postcodes, the teams covering Box — a village — work the surrounding spots too, Middlehill and Henley included. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting SN13 8.
The vehicle does not need to move. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Hazelbury Manor, a side street close to Box Cricket Club: our technicians drain the car where it stands. Tricky to explain, like the back of Box Parish Pavilion? By a border? Checking beats guessing, so ring.
Box people: the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will empty it where it is, anywhere in Wiltshire: switch the car off then call 0333 366 0103.