AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Broadway: Why It Happens and How to Prevent It
Leave the engine and ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Usually, if the engine has not run, it is emptied and thoroughly cleaned where the vehicle is around Broadway. Not happened yet? Below, the page covers the reasons it takes place and the ways to avoid it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Many newer diesels around Hastings, as well as Broadway, run on two fluids; the engine gets just the diesel. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, and there spraying treats the gas.
There's a filler for every tank. Many of cars share a single flap for the two, while others put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is fuelled at the petrol pump all the time. Far less commonly, the AdBlue side gets filled — normally from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. The error lives in that gap.
Broadway: how AdBlue in the diesel tank happens
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
Hurry follows from the warning. Your car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a driveway off Standerwick Gardens, or heading home in the car park outside The Bell.
The old car's cap is where the hand goes — yet a hire car, a new motor or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That is the second thing: a new vehicle.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the pour once it has started. It takes seconds, be it out in Broadway Pound or right in the centre of Broadway.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Windmill Hill or a forecourt in Broadway, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally isn't. Read it instead of going by position.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- Check inside the fuel flap: plenty of vehicles carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows where it lives when your filler isn't next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- The previous driver will know. Check as you collect a rental or fleet car — at Taunton's car park, say — not when the warning appears.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
The day the light goes on, anywhere around Somerset, use this routine.
- Pull in somewhere level, motor off, with time in hand — never rushing on the side of Standerwick Orchard.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, yes, but it works.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where the two sit under a flap, confirm it's closed before the bottle comes up.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, then check again — making sure your diesel cap stayed shut the whole time. After that, start the vehicle.
Find at the second or third step that AdBlue went into the diesel filler? That is where you stop. Don't carry on to step five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Broadway already?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your engine. The fuel pump starts on many diesels as soon as your ignition goes on — and so leave it off. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
At a forecourt — Shell, Texaco or any other — the staff will normally help roll the car away, if you ask. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive around Broadway.
Where the engine has been run by now, pull over somewhere safe and turn the vehicle off. Broadway lies under 10 miles from the M5; on it, use the next exit. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Broadway is smaller work than a run of under 25 miles towards Wells, so tell us.
Broadway: what takes place when our engineers get there
We come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Neroche Primary School, close to Broadway Hill Methodist Church or on your own driveway. We ask what was put in, about how much, and if it's run, since the answers decide this work and the price. Nobody sets off before you've had our price over the phone.
Your system is then purged thoroughly, once your tank is emptied. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. A test is last: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and your filter is flushed or changed if necessary. After that our technicians fire it up and make sure it runs correctly before we leave.
Unstarted cars usually mean a half-hour visit from the moment we arrive. The kit is safe on a live 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. Before we get there, have a look at your policy; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Broadway and where it is
Broadway is a small village in Somerset, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 63 metres. Broadway sits near the villages of Broadway Pound, Horton, and Puddlebridge, and is located approximately 23.5 miles from the city of Wells. Broadway has a population of around 618 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Broadway is also relatively distant from London, at 129.1 miles away.
Broadway and Somerset: AdBlue drains across the area
Over TA postcodes, the vans covering Broadway — a village — work the nearby locations too, Puddlebridge and Horton included. Fastest of all: give a TA19 9 postcode to the van.
Shifting the vehicle is not needed. Draining takes place on the spot, whether a drive, a road by St. Peter's, or a lay-by towards Bluebell Woods. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Broadway Village Hall, ring and ask instead of guessing.
The short version for Broadway people
Tip nothing until you've read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Keep the car switched off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, across Somerset.