Why It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Bread Street
Stop here a minute if your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then call 0333 366 0103. Around Bread Street, catching it before the engine runs usually means a drain and a full flush where it stands. The remainder of this page explains why it happens and how to ensure it doesn't — useful if you're reading ahead of time.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Many newer diesels around Highfield, like those in Bread Street, carry on two liquids; the motor gets just your diesel. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Every tank comes with one filler of its own. Under one flap, side by side: that is the arrangement on a lot of vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. Diesel goes in on each filling station call-out, week in, week out. The AdBlue side is filled far less commonly, usually from a bottle, and usually by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the mistake lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank occur in Bread Street?
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 completely, the car drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Ruscombe Road before work, or in the car park outside Star Inn on the way home.
Then the vehicle is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Lastly, the bottle goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in as readily, and after the tip begins, nothing stops it. Ruscombe or the middle of Bread Street: it takes the same few seconds in both.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Be it a Bread Street forecourt or a drive over in Paganhill, take a few seconds over these before any is poured in.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Trust the cap, not its position.
- Many vehicles give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Check inside the fuel flap: many vehicles have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows which it lives if the filler is not next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park at Stroud? Ask whoever drove the car last before you set off, rather than when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
The day the light comes on, anywhere around Gloucestershire, follow this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of The Lane, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park then switch off properly.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you have found the filler and read it.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the vehicle on.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Don't carry on to stage five.
Bread Street: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with not starting your motor. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch the car on. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is pulled from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
Ask the attendants to help roll the car away from the petrol pump if you're on a forecourt — the Tesco, the Esso or somewhere else. Your own drive in Bread Street is where it should stay.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your engine has already run. The next junction is where to leave when you're on the M5, under 5 miles from Bread Street. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Gloucester, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Bread Street.
Bread Street: what takes place when our technicians get there
The van comes to the car wherever it has come to rest — your own drive, beside Randwick Village Hall, or by Randwick Church of England Primary School. Both the work and our price depend on three replies — which liquid, which amount, and whether it has run — so our engineers ask. That quote comes over the phone, before any van leaves.
Then your tank is emptied and your system purged thoroughly. More than with petrol, it matters here: the crystals form, some metals corrode, and none of it washes out on its own, no matter how long it sits. The filter cleaned or, if it must be, swapped; fresh diesel in; then a check of your vehicle. We don't go until it has been started and is running properly.
Unrun cars mostly need a half-hour visit after the moment we arrive. The kit is safe on a busy forecourt, and quiet enough for a driveway late at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Bread Street, briefly
Bread Street is a locality situated near the River Severn in Gloucestershire, with a mix of detached housing and rural landscapes. Bread Street lies close to the nearby villages of Ruscombe and Randwick, and is within a short distance of Gloucester. Bread Street has a population of around 562 people and is characterised by its riverside setting and relatively low elevation of 119 metres. Bread Street is also near Puckshole, another small settlement in the area.
AdBlue drains across Gloucestershire, Bread Street included
Throughout GL postcodes, our teams that cover Bread Street — a small village — work the nearby places too, Randwick and Puckshole among them. A postcode starting GL6 6 gets our van to you fastest.
There's no need to shift your car. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Randwick Playing Fields, a side street near Whiteshill and Ruscombe Village Hall: we drain the vehicle where it stands. Guessing won't help at the back of Saint Paul, close to a boundary, or anywhere hard to describe; phone and ask.
The short version for Bread Street drivers
Read the cap before you tip. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless, leave the car off and phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it waits, anywhere around Gloucestershire.