How It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Callowside
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case set this page aside a moment, leave the ignition and motor off, then ring 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, carried out just where the vehicle sits around Callowside, is normally what it needs if caught before your engine runs. The remainder of this page explains why it takes place and how to ensure it does not — handy if you are reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel feeds the motor — yet many modern diesels driven around Callowside and Howton hold a second liquid too. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Every tank has one filler of its own. Plenty of cars have a single flap for the two, while others put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is fuelled at the pump all the time. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less frequently. The mistake grows in the gap between the two.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place around Callowside
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from the car, and letting it run dry means limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Callowside, or at The Temple Bar Inn on the way home after work.
Then the car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Third, the spout fits: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in just as easily, and after the pour starts, no part stops it. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Callowside or out in Elmdale.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
A couple of seconds is all these take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a drive in Abbey Dore or a forecourt around Callowside.
- Check the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue ones are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually are not.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- Lift the flap and check for a label — many vehicles show what belongs in which filler just there.
- The handbook shows where it lives if your filler is not next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Hereford, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
Wherever in Herefordshire the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Pull in on level, engine off, with time in hand — never rushing on the side of Elm Green Road.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you've found the filler and read it.
- The diesel cap remains on. When both sit under a flap, confirm it's closed before the bottle comes up.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Only then, start your car: close the cap, check again, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Leave out stage five altogether.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Callowside?
Don't start the engine: that's how the short order of things begins. Keep your ignition off too, because on many diesels switching it on by itself runs your pump. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is sucked from.
The attendants at Murco, another forecourt nearby or any forecourt will normally help to push your car away when you ask. Your own driveway in Callowside is where it should stay.
Where the motor has been run by now, pull over somewhere safe and switch the car off. The next junction is where to leave if you're on the M50, under 15 miles from Callowside. About how far did it go? Crossing Callowside is less work than a trip of under 15 miles towards Hereford, so say.
What takes place when our technicians get there around Callowside
Anywhere your car has stopped, whether by Ewyas Harold Primary School, near Ewyas Harold Baptist Church or on your own drive, our van travels to it. What liquid went in, the amount, and whether it ran: our engineers ask since those answers set both work and price. You hear that price by phone, before anyone heads out.
Next: draining, then a full flush of the entire system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more here than with petrol. After the filter has been cleaned — or renewed, where required — fresh diesel goes in, and then the vehicle gets tested. Before leaving, our technicians fire it up and make sure that it is running smoothly.
Unrun cars usually mean a half-hour job from the moment we arrive. The equipment is safe on a live filling station, and hushed enough for a driveway after dark. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents your insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Callowside itself
Callowside is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Herefordshire, with a mix of detached housing and a population of around 885 residents. Callowside sits at an elevation of 85 metres, approximately 10 miles from the city of Hereford and near other local places such as Elmdale and Ewyas Harold. Callowside is located in a scenic part of the West Midlands region, with the River Wye flowing nearby. Callowside offers a relatively quiet environment, being around 122 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Herefordshire, Callowside included
Over HR postcodes, the teams that cover Callowside — a residential suburb — work the nearby places too, Pontrilas and Ewyas Harold among them. Give a postcode that starts HR2 0, and the van gets there quickest.
Shifting your car is not necessary. Anywhere it sits — near Ewyas Harold Village Sign, in a layby en route to Callow Hill Wood, on a drive — that is where it is emptied. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Ewyas Harold, St Michael & All Saints.
Callowside people: the short version
Read the cap before you pour. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave the car off and phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it sits, anywhere across Herefordshire.