How It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Clifton upon Dunsmore
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case put this page aside for now, keep the ignition and motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. In Clifton upon Dunsmore, catching it before the motor turns usually leaves draining and a thorough flush where it stands. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Not one fluid but two: that is what plenty of modern diesels near Clifton upon Dunsmore and Catthorpe run, with diesel for your engine. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust gas to clean it.
Each tank has its own filler. Plenty of motors have a single flap for the two, while others move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Filling the diesel side at the pump goes on constantly. The AdBlue side is filled far less frequently, usually from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake grows in that gap between them.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs around Clifton upon Dunsmore
Carelessness seldom explains it. Instead is three things coming up at once.
Hurry follows from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a drive off Church Street, or heading home in the car park at The Bull Inn.
Next, the hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old motor — because a rental car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the pour after it has started. Whether it occurs in Newton or the middle of Clifton upon Dunsmore, it is the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Hillmorton Paddock or a forecourt in Clifton upon Dunsmore, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Check the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue caps are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually are not.
- On many vehicles, size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Open the flap and look for a label — many vehicles mark what goes in each filler just there.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler is if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Rugby, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
On the day the warning comes on — anywhere you are across Warwickshire — a simple routine to use.
- Pull in somewhere level, engine off, with time to spare — not rushing on the side of Main Street.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap works — after you've found 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.
- Finish when that tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; before that, pour gently through the own spout.
- Shut the cap, then check once more — confirm the diesel cap remained closed the whole time. Only then, start the car.
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 your diesel tank around Clifton upon Dunsmore?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with no starting the engine. Keep the ignition off as well, because on plenty of diesels it by itself 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 the fuel is sucked from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it's the Eddie Stobart Truckstop - Rugby or the Shell, ask the staff to help push your car away from the pump. If you are on your own driveway in Clifton upon Dunsmore, leave the car where it sits.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the engine has already run. The next exit is where to leave when you are on the M6, under 3 miles from Clifton upon Dunsmore. A short hop across Clifton upon Dunsmore is a smaller job than a run towards Coventry, under 15 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
Our arrival around Clifton upon Dunsmore, and what happens next
Wherever the car came to rest, whether by Clifton-upon-Dunsmore CofE Primary School, near St Mary the Virgin or on your own drive, our van comes to it. The answers decide this work and the quote, and so our technicians ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it's run. That quote comes on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
Your system is then flushed thoroughly, once the tank is cleared. More than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: the crystals form, some metals corrode, and nothing washes out unaided, no matter how long it sits. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. We don't leave until it has been fired up and is running smoothly.
If your motor hasn't 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 at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It is worth looking at your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Clifton upon Dunsmore and where it is
Clifton upon Dunsmore is a village in Warwickshire, situated on the banks of the River Avon at an elevation of around 124 metres. Clifton upon Dunsmore lies near the cities of Coventry and Rugby, with nearby villages including Newton, Brownsover, and Hillmorton. Clifton upon Dunsmore has a population of approximately 888 residents, predominantly living in detached housing. Clifton upon Dunsmore is located about 76 miles northwest of London, making it a commuter village with easy access to major cities.
AdBlue drains across Warwickshire, Clifton upon Dunsmore included
Throughout CV postcodes, our teams covering Clifton upon Dunsmore — a village — work the nearby spots too, Hillmorton and Brownsover among them. A postcode starting CV23 0 gets the van to you fastest.
The car stays where it is. Wherever it stands — beside Clifton Tennis Club, on a layby en route to Rugby Golf Club, at home — that is where it is cleared. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of St. Thomas's Cross, ring and ask instead of assuming.
In short, for Clifton upon Dunsmore drivers
Read the cap before you tip. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it wherever it is, wherever across Warwickshire: keep the car off and phone 0333 366 0103.