AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Burton: How It Occurs and How to Prevent It
Stop reading a minute when the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then ring 0333 366 0103. In Burton, catching it before your motor runs normally means a drain and a full flush on the spot. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Many modern diesels around East Coker, like those in Burton, carry on two fluids; the engine takes just your diesel. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust gas to clean it.
Each tank has its own filler. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is topped up at the pump all the time. Much less frequently, the AdBlue side is topped up — normally from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. Mistakes happen in that gap between them.
Burton: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from the vehicle, and letting it run out leads to limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Higher Burton, perhaps outside The Helyar Arms on the way home that evening.
The old car's filler is where the hand reaches — but a hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That's the second factor: an unfamiliar car.
No part stops the tip once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Holywell or the middle of Burton: it is the same few seconds in both.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Check these before pouring, at a forecourt in Burton or a driveway out in West Coker. A few seconds, no more.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally isn't. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on many cars, the AdBlue one.
- Lift the filler flap and check for a label — plenty of motors mark what goes in which inlet just there.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler sits if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- The previous driver will know. Check when you collect a hire car or company car — from Yeovil Junction's car park, say — not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
When the light comes on, wherever in Somerset, follow this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Burton Lane, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park and switch off first.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, perhaps, yet it does the trick.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the car, close the cap and check a second time that the diesel cap was never opened off.
Find at stage two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? So stop right there. Never go on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Burton already?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your engine. Don't switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Topping up with diesel won't thin it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of your tank, right where fuel is taken from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it's the BP or the Morrisons, ask the staff to help push the car clear of the pump. If you're on your own driveway in Burton, leave the car where it sits.
Already run? Stop once it is safe, then switch off. Come off the M5 — under 25 miles out of Burton — at the first junction. About how far did it go? Crossing Burton is smaller a job than a run of under 25 miles towards Wells, and so say.
Our arrival in Burton, and what occurs next
Our technicians come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside East Coker Community Primary School, close to West Coker House or on your own drive. Both the work and the price rest on three replies — what liquid, what amount, and whether it's run — so our engineers ask. You hear that quote by phone, before anybody heads out.
After that: a drain, then a full flush of the whole system. Much more than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: crystals form, certain metals corrode, and none of that clears away unaided, however long it sits. Filter flushed or, if it must be, replaced; fresh diesel in; and then a test of your car. Before we leave, our technicians start it and check that it is running properly.
Using pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where your engine has not run need roughly half an hour after our technicians are there. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork an insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Burton and where it is
Burton is a small village in Somerset, situated on the riverside at an elevation of around 65 metres. Burton lies near the villages of Holywell and North Coker, and is approximately 20 miles from the city of Wells. Burton has a population of around 517 people, predominantly living in detached houses. Burton is located in the South West region of England, about 117 miles west of London.
AdBlue drains across Somerset, Burton included
North Coker and Nash are among the places around Burton, a village, that the same teams cover, over BA postcodes. A postcode starting BA22 9 gets the van to you fastest.
No need to move the vehicle. Draining takes place right there, be it a driveway, a road near St Michael and All Angels' Church, or a lay-by towards Hatherstone Wood. Awkward to pin down, like the back of West Coker Manor? By a county line? Checking beats guessing, and so phone.
For Burton motorists, the short version
Pour nothing until you've read the cap. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it wherever it is, wherever in Somerset: switch the vehicle off then phone 0333 366 0103.