How It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Cam
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then set this page aside a moment, leave your ignition and engine off, and ring 0333 366 0103. In Cam, finding it before the engine runs usually means draining 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: two tanks, two fillers
No single liquid but two: that is how many modern diesels around Cam and Woodfield run, with diesel feeding your engine. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, where spraying treats the fumes.
Every tank comes with one filler of its own. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled at every filling station visit, week in, week out. Much less commonly, the AdBlue side gets topped up — normally from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. The error lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank occur around Cam?
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
Hurry comes from the warning. The vehicle tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a drive off Woodfield Road, or on the way home in the car park outside Berkeley Arms.
Then, the hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old car — because a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
Nothing halts 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. Whether it occurs in Summerhayes or the middle of Cam, it's the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Norman Hill or a forecourt around Cam, check these. They take a few seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually isn't. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- On plenty of motors, size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Open the flap and check for a label — many vehicles mark what belongs in each filler just there.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler is if it is not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Cam & Dursley? Ask whoever drove it last before leaving, rather than once the light goes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
Anywhere across Gloucestershire the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Turn off after you park — level ground, motor stopped, and never in a rush beside Cam Pitch at the roadside.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you've located your filler and read it.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Find at the second or third stage that the bottle went into the diesel filler? That is where you stop. Leave out step five entirely.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Cam?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the engine. Don't switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Topping up with diesel will not dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of the tank, just where the fuel is drawn from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it's the Shell or the Texaco, ask the staff to help roll your car away from the pump. If you are on your own driveway around Cam, leave the vehicle where it stands.
Where the engine has run by now, stop somewhere safe then switch it off. On the M5, under a mile from Cam, that means the next junction. Distance counts — a quick hop across Cam makes a smaller job than driving under 15 miles to Gloucester — so say about how far it went.
Cam: what occurs when our technicians get there
Wherever your car came to rest, be it outside Cam Woodfield Infant School, beside Cam Youth and Community Centre or at home, our van travels to it. Our technicians ask what got in, about how much, and whether it has run, because those answers determine the work and the price. You get that price on the phone, before anybody sets off.
Then your tank is drained and your system rinsed thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more here than with petrol. Filter flushed or, if needed, replaced; clean diesel in; then a check of your vehicle. The engine is fired up next and checked to make sure it runs correctly, all before we leave.
If your engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. No money in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. It is worth looking at your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Cam, briefly
Cam is a village situated on the banks of the River Cam in Gloucestershire, with a mix of semi-detached housing and other residential properties. Cam sits at an elevation of 81 metres, near the villages of Summerhayes and Fairmead, and is located approximately 12.7 miles from Gloucester. Cam has a population of around 3073 people, and its riverside setting provides a distinctive character to the village. Cam is also close to the settlement of Tilsdown, and is within commuting distance of larger cities.
Cam and Gloucestershire: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout GL postcodes, our vans covering Cam — a village — work the nearby spots too, Tilsdown and Fairmead among them. Quickest of all: quote a GL11 5 postcode for the van.
The vehicle remains put. We drain it where it is — a side street close to St Bartholomews Church, a lay-by on the way to Norman Hill Playing Field, a driveway. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Lower Cam War Memorial? By a border? Checking is better than assuming, so phone.
The short version for Cam people
Tip no AdBlue till you have read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave it off and call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it sits, anywhere across Gloucestershire.