How It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Calne
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and your ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103. Around Calne, finding it before the motor turns usually leaves draining and a thorough flush where it stands. Reading before the event? In that case the rest covers why it happens and what to stop it happening at all.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Many modern diesels around Mile Elm, as well as Calne, run on two fluids; your engine takes just your diesel. The exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the fumes to fresh it, from a separate tank.
There's a filler on every tank. On a lot of vehicles 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. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less commonly. That gap is where the slip lives.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs in Calne
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car 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 drive off A4 before work, or in the car park outside The Wheatsheaf on the way home.
The old car's filler is where the hand goes — yet a hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That is the second factor: a strange vehicle.
A spouted bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, once started, keeps on. The Square or the heart of Calne: it is the same few seconds either way.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
A few seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Ratford or a forecourt in Calne.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually isn't. Read it rather than going by position.
- On many vehicles, size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Check inside the fuel flap: plenty of motors carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler sits if it is not by the diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Chippenham? Ask whoever drove the car last before leaving, rather than once the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
When the light comes on, anywhere across Wiltshire, follow this routine.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Cox's Hill.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew it. It sounds silly. It does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where the two share a flap, make sure it's shut before lifting the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start the car: close the cap, check again, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Find at step two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? So stop right there. Skip stage five entirely.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Calne?
Brief order, then. Top of that: the engine remains unstarted. Keep your ignition off as well, since on many diesels switching it on alone starts the pump. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is pulled from.
On a forecourt — Esso, BP or another — the staff will normally help roll your car clear, if you ask. Your own drive around Calne is the place it stays.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. On the M4, under 10 miles from Calne, that means the next junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Bath, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Calne.
Calne: what takes place when we arrive
The van comes to your car wherever it has come to rest — your own driveway, near Calne Town Hall, or outside Priestley Primary School. Which fluid was put in, the quantity, and if it ran: our technicians ask since the replies set the work and quote. You hear that quote by phone, before anyone sets off.
Draining that tank comes next, then a full flush of the system. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own. Filter flushed or, if it must be, replaced; fresh diesel in; and then a test of the car. Before we leave, we start the engine and make sure that it's running properly.
Using pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where the motor hasn't run need about half an hour once our engineers are there. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents an insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. It is worth checking your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Calne itself
Calne is a town situated in the county of Wiltshire, England, with a scenic riverside location. It lies at the edge of a beautiful hill range, which has been recognised for its natural beauty. Calne is nestled in a picturesque part of southwestern England, making it a notable town in the region. The town's setting makes it a charming place to visit.
AdBlue drains around Calne and across Wiltshire
Throughout SN postcodes, our teams covering Calne — a riverside town — work the nearby places too, Quemerford and Calne Marsh included. A postcode starting SN11 0 gets our van to you fastest.
Shifting your car is not needed. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Beach Terrace, a side street close to Jan Ingen Housz: our technicians drain the car where it is. Awkward to explain, like the back of Calne Library? By a county line? Checking beats assuming, so ring.
Calne people: the short version
First, the cap; then, the pour. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere around Wiltshire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same — so leave it off and phone 0333 366 0103.