How It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Bulkington
Keep the engine and ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Caught before your motor runs, it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Bulkington. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel goes to the engine — yet many newer diesels driven about Bulkington and Barnacle hold a second fluid too. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, where a spray treats the gas.
There's a filler on each tank. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the layout on a lot of motors. On others, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in your boot instead. Filling the diesel side at the pump goes on constantly. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less regularly. It is in the gap that the mistake lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Bulkington: how it takes place
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the car drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Leicester Street before work, or in the car park outside Rule and Compass on the way home.
Then your car is new. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the tip after it has started. Whether it takes place in Weston in Arden or the middle of Bulkington, it's the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Shilton or a forecourt around Bulkington, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually is not. Read it rather than going by position.
- On plenty of cars, the size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside your fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Look for it.
- Can't see it next to your diesel inlet? In that case look below the bonnet or in the boot — the owner's manual will say which.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at Bedworth, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
For the day the warning comes on — wherever it is around Warwickshire — a routine to use.
- Pull in on level, engine off, with time to spare — never rushing on the side of Leicester Court.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, yes, but it does the trick.
- Both under one flap? Then confirm the cap on your diesel side stays closed before raising the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the vehicle, close the cap and check a second time that your diesel cap never opened off.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Don't carry on to step five.
Bulkington: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Short order, then. Top of that: your engine stays unstarted. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels as soon as the ignition is switched on — so keep it off. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is drawn from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it is the the nearest petrol station or the Tesco, ask the staff to help push the vehicle clear of the petrol pump. On your own drive around Bulkington? Then your car remains put.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the engine has already run. Bulkington lies under a mile from the M69; there, take the first junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Coventry, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Bulkington.
Bulkington: what occurs when our engineers turn up
Anywhere the vehicle came to rest, whether outside St James' CofE Academy, beside Bulkington Library & Information Centre or on your own drive, our van comes to it. Both the work and our price depend on three answers — what liquid, which quantity, and whether it's run — so our technicians ask. No one heads out until you have had the quote by phone.
Emptying the tank comes next, then a full flush of your system. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own. Testing comes at the end: before that, clean diesel is added, and the filter is flushed or changed if necessary. Before leaving, our technicians start the engine and confirm that it's running smoothly.
Unrun vehicles usually mean a half-hour job after arrival. The equipment is safe on a busy filling station, and hushed 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. Wrong-fuel cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Bulkington itself
Bulkington is a village in Warwickshire, situated on the River Anker, with a mix of semi-detached housing and other residential properties. Bulkington sits at an elevation of 114 metres, near the city of Coventry and close to nearby places such as Weston in Arden and Marston Jabbett. Bulkington has a population of around 2525 people and is located approximately 86.8 miles northwest of London. Bulkington remains a residential community with a rural feel, despite its proximity to urban areas.
AdBlue drains around Bulkington, and Warwickshire beyond
Throughout CV postcodes, our teams covering Bulkington — a village — work the nearby places too, Marston Jabbett and Bramcote Mains included. A postcode starting CV12 9 gets our van to you fastest.
Moving the car is not necessary. Anywhere it sits — beside St James, on a lay-by heading to Bulkington Recreation Ground, on a drive — that's where it is cleared. Tricky to pin down, like the back of Our Lady Of The Sacred Heart? Close to a county line? Checking is better than guessing, so phone.
In short, for Bulkington motorists
Tip nothing till you've read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave the car off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it waits, anywhere around Warwickshire.