AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Colerne: How It Happens and How to Avoid It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and your ignition off and call 0333 366 0103. Caught before your motor runs, it's generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Colerne. Reading before the event? Then the rest explains why it happens and what to prevent it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Not one liquid but two: that's what many modern diesels around Colerne and Alcombe carry, with diesel for your motor. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust gas and cleans it.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Under one flap, side by side: that's the arrangement on many cars. On others, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less often. It's in the gap that the mistake happens.
Colerne: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the 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 Ogbourne before work, or in the car park outside The Fox And Hounds on the way home.
Then the car is new. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spouted bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, after started, carries on. Eastrip or the middle of Colerne: it takes the same few seconds either way.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
A couple of seconds is all these take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Middlehill or a forecourt around Colerne.
- Read the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue caps are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally aren't.
- Many cars fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Check for it.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler sits if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Check as you collect a rental or company car — from Bath Spa's car park, say — rather than once the warning comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
Wherever across Wiltshire the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Silver Street, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park and switch off first.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, perhaps, yet it does the trick.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where the two share a flap, make sure it is closed before lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the car, close the cap and check a second time that your diesel cap was never came off.
Spot at step two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? Then stop just there. Do not go on to step five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Colerne?
Do not start your engine: that's where the short order of things begins. Leave your ignition off as well, because on many diesels switching it on alone runs the pump. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — Shell, UK petroleum or another — the staff will usually help push the car away, if you ask. At home around Colerne? Then your car remains put.
When the motor has run already, pull over safely and turn it off. The next exit means the place to leave if you are on the M4, under 10 miles from Colerne. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Colerne is less a job than a run of under 10 miles towards Bath, so say.
Colerne: what happens when we arrive
Our engineers come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Colerne CofE Primary School, close to St. John the Baptist or on your own drive. The answers decide the work and the price, and so our engineers ask what went in, about how much, and whether it has run. The quote is given on the call, before any van leaves.
The system is then rinsed thoroughly, once your tank is cleared. More than with petrol, it matters here: the crystals build up, certain metals are attacked, and nothing clears away on its own, no matter how long it sits. Filter flushed or, if needed, replaced; fresh diesel in; then a test of your car. Before we leave, our engineers start the car and make sure that it is running smoothly.
Unstarted vehicles mostly mean a half-hour visit from arrival. The kit is safe on a live filling station, and quiet enough for a driveway late at night. No money in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Colerne, briefly
Colerne is a village in Wiltshire, situated on the banks of the River Avon, with a mix of semi-detached housing and other types of homes. Colerne sits at an elevation of 164 metres, near the city of Bath, and is surrounded by nearby places such as Eastrip, Thickwood, and Ditteridge. Colerne has a population of approximately 985 residents, and its location near Bath makes it a desirable place to live. Colerne is also relatively close to London, being around 92 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Wiltshire, Colerne included
Colerne is a village, and the vans that cover it also work the places around it, Thickwood and Ditteridge among them, across the SN postcode area. A postcode starting SN14 8 gets our van to you fastest.
The vehicle does not need to shift. Anywhere it stands — beside Colerne Village Hall, on a layby en route to The Rec, on a drive — that's where it gets drained. Awkward to explain, like the back of Roman villa? Close to a county line? Checking is better than guessing, and so ring.
For Colerne motorists, the short version
First, the cap; then, the tip. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere around Wiltshire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same — so leave the vehicle off then call 0333 366 0103.