Cottles Oak: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and the ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Cottles Oak. Reading in advance? Then the rest explains why it happens and what to stop it ever happening.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Diesel feeds your motor — but plenty of modern diesels seen about Cottles Oak and Frome hold a second liquid too. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, and there spraying treats the fumes.
Every tank comes with a filler of its own. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in at each forecourt call-out, again and again. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less commonly. It is in the gap that the mistake happens.
Cottles Oak: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the car, and letting it run out leads to limp mode — so a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Broadway, or at The Royal Oak on the way home that evening.
The old car's cap is where your hand reaches — yet a hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That's a second factor: a strange motor.
A spouted bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, after begun, keeps on. It takes a few seconds, whether in Egford or right in the heart of Cottles Oak.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Be it a Cottles Oak forecourt or a driveway over in Keyford, take a few seconds over these before anything goes in.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside the fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Look for it.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by the diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park at Frome? Ask the person who drove the vehicle last before leaving, not once the light goes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
On the day the light appears — anywhere you are across Somerset — a simple routine to use.
- Stop on level, motor off, with time in hand — never hurried on the side of Oakfield Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Finish once your tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; until then, pour gently using the built-in spout.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Never go on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Cottles Oak already?
The short order of things, beginning with no starting your motor. The fuel pump runs on many diesels as soon as your ignition is switched on — so keep it off. Thinning it with more diesel won't work, since AdBlue settles to the base rather than blending — and that is where the fuel is pulled from.
At a forecourt — Sainsbury's, Texaco or any other — the staff will usually help push the car away, if you ask. On your own drive in Cottles Oak? So the vehicle stays where it is.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Come off the M4 — under 25 miles out of Cottles Oak — at the next junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Bath, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Cottles Oak.
When our technicians arrive in Cottles Oak, what takes place?
By Trinity Church of England First School, near Lois Maxwell or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, we come to it. Those replies settle this work and the price, and so we ask what was put in, about how much, and whether it has run. Nobody sets off before you have had our quote by phone.
After that: a drain, then a full flush of the entire system. Much more than with petrol, it counts here: the crystals build up, some metals corrode, and nothing washes out unaided, no matter how long it is left. The filter cleaned or, where needed, swapped; fresh diesel in; and then a check of the vehicle. Then we start it and check it runs smoothly before we leave.
If the engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Your insurer usually wants an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Cottles Oak itself
Cottles Oak is a suburban area in Somerset, situated inland at an elevation of around 130 metres, and is located approximately 10 miles from the city of Bath. Cottles Oak forms part of the larger residential area surrounding Bath, with nearby places including Egford, The Butts, and Critchill. Cottles Oak has a population of around 5543 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing.
AdBlue drains in Cottles Oak and across Somerset
The Butts and Critchill are among the towns around Cottles Oak, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, over BA postcodes. Fastest of all: give a BA11 3 postcode to our van.
The car remains where it is. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near Holy Trinity Church, a lay-by on the way to Victoria Park, a drive. Assuming doesn't help behind Christ Church, close to a border, or somewhere awkward to describe; ring and check.
For Cottles Oak people, the short version
Read the cap before you tip. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Leave the car switched off then call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, across Somerset.