Charlton: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Keep the engine and ignition off and call 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. In Charlton, catching it before your motor turns usually means a drain and a full flush where it stands. The rest of this page covers why it occurs and how to make sure it does not — handy if you are reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
No single fluid but two: that's what many modern diesels around Charlton and Bodden carry, with diesel feeding the engine. Your exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the fumes to fresh it, from a separate tank.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, side by side: that is the layout on a lot of cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in the boot instead. The diesel side is fuelled at the petrol pump all the time. Seldom topped up, AdBlue normally goes in from a bottle, tipped by a driver who must stop and think what cap to use. The mistake lives in that gap.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Charlton: how it happens
Carelessness seldom causes it. What does is three things lining up at once.
On a drive off Dennett Close before work, or in the car park outside The Thatched Cottage Inn heading home: that is where the hurried top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low the vehicle tells you, and once it is empty, limp mode follows.
Next, your hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old vehicle — since a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers where your last one did not.
Nothing halts the tip once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it happens in Field or the middle of Charlton, it's the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Be it a Charlton forecourt or a drive out in Beardly Batch, take a few seconds over these before anything is poured in.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually don't.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- Check inside your fuel flap: many vehicles have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- Can't see it next to your diesel inlet? Then look below the bonnet or inside the boot — the handbook says where.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Castle Cary, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
For the day the light comes on — wherever you are across Somerset — a simple routine to follow.
- Turn off after you park — flat ground, motor stopped, and never in a rush by Charlton Road at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. When the two share a flap, confirm it is closed before the bottle comes up.
- Finish when your tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; before that, pour gently using the built-in spout.
- Only then, start the vehicle: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Find during the second or third stage that AdBlue went into the wrong tank? That is where you stop. Do not go on to stage five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Charlton?
Short list, then. Top of it: your engine remains off. Don't switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is sucked from.
Ask the staff to help push the vehicle away from the petrol pump if you're at a forecourt — the Tesco, the Murco or somewhere else. If you are on your own driveway around Charlton, leave the vehicle where it sits.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your motor has already run. Come off the M5 — under 25 miles out of Charlton — at the next exit. Mileage counts — a short hop across Charlton makes a smaller job than heading under 10 miles towards Wells — so tell us roughly how far it went.
Charlton: what takes place when we turn up
Wherever your car came to rest, be it by St Paul's Church of England VC Junior School, beside Shepton Mallet Lesure Centre or at home, our van travels to it. Both the work and the quote depend on three answers — what fluid, which quantity, and whether it has run — so we ask. The quote comes over the phone, before any van leaves.
Next: a drain, then a thorough flush of the entire system. 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 that matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. After that our engineers fire it up and make sure it runs smoothly before we leave.
If your motor has not run, most 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 at night. No money in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. It's worth looking at your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Charlton
Charlton is a suburban area in Somerset, situated near the River Sheppey and close to the Mendip Hills. Charlton has a mix of housing types, but detached homes are the most common, and the area is around 157 metres above sea level. Charlton is located near several other small settlements, including Field and Cannards Grave, and is within a short drive of the city of Wells. Charlton is also relatively close to other nearby towns, such as Shepton Mallet.
AdBlue drains across Somerset, Charlton included
Being a residential suburb, Charlton shares its vans surrounding areas — Cannards Grave, Shepton Mallet — all the way across BA postcodes and the wider area beyond. Fastest of all: quote a BA4 4 postcode for our van.
The vehicle stays where it is. The drain takes place on the spot, whether a drive, a road by Shepton Mallet Sheep, or a layby on the way to Kilver Court and Gardens. Assuming won't help behind Saint Michael's Catholic Church, close to a boundary, or somewhere awkward to pin down; ring and ask.
For Charlton people, the short version
Pour no AdBlue until you've read the cap. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it where it stands, anywhere across Somerset: keep the car off and phone 0333 366 0103.