AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Dodhill: Why It Happens and How to Prevent It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and the ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, carried out right where your vehicle stands in Dodhill, is normally what it needs when found before the motor runs. Reading before the event? In that case what follows explains why it comes about and how to prevent it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Diesel goes to the motor — but many newer diesels driven about Dodhill and Fulford hold another liquid too. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, where spraying treats the fumes.
Each tank has one filler of its own. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, the diesel side is topped up constantly. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less regularly. It's in the gap that the mistake happens.
Dodhill: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from the vehicle, and running out means limp mode — so a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Dodhill Road, perhaps outside the pub in the village on the way home that evening.
New-to-you vehicles come second, too. Rentals, new motors and company motors place their fillers differently, and habit reaches for the cap it used on the old one.
Nothing stops the pour once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It's a few seconds, be it in Nailsbourne or bang in the centre of Dodhill.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Be it a Dodhill forecourt or a driveway out in Staplegrove, take a few seconds over these before anything is poured in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually is not. Read it rather than going by position.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Open the filler flap and check for a label — many cars mark what goes in each filler right there.
- Can't see it beside the diesel filler? In that case look below the bonnet or in the boot — the handbook says which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Taunton, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
Anywhere in Somerset the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Pull in somewhere level, engine off, with time to spare — not rushing on the side of Kingston Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the vehicle, shut the cap and look a second time that your diesel cap was never came off.
Find at step two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? So stop just there. Stage five is off limits.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Dodhill?
Short list, then. First: your engine stays unstarted. Keep the ignition off too, because on many diesels switching it on alone runs the pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is drawn from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it's the Texaco or the BP, ask the attendants to help push the vehicle clear of the pump. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive in Dodhill.
Where your engine has been run by now, pull over safely then switch the vehicle off. Come off the M5 — under 5 miles out of Dodhill — at the next exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Wells, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Dodhill.
What occurs when our technicians arrive around Dodhill
Our van reaches the vehicle wherever it stopped — your own driveway, beside Kingston Club, or outside Kingston St Mary Church of England Primary School. Both the work and the price rest on three answers — what fluid, which amount, and whether it has run — so our technicians ask. No one sets off until you have had our price over the phone.
The system is then purged thoroughly, once that tank is cleared. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more here than with petrol. Once the filter is cleaned — or replaced, if needed — clean diesel is added, and finally your vehicle is tested. Before we go, our technicians fire it up and check that it is running correctly.
If your motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. No money in advance; you settle up on the day. At the end, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Dodhill and where it is
Dodhill is a small hamlet in inland Somerset, situated at an elevation of 52 metres, and is located near the villages of Nailsbourne and Upper Cheddon. Dodhill lies approximately 23 miles from the city of Wells and is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock. Dodhill is a rural community with a population of around 516 residents, and is surrounded by the rolling countryside of the South West region. Dodhill is also within commuting distance of larger towns, being around 133 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Somerset, Dodhill included
Dodhill is a rural hamlet, and our teams that cover it also work the towns around it, Mill Cross and Upper Cheddon among them, across the TA postcode area. Quote a postcode that starts TA2 8, and our van arrives quickest.
The car stays where it is. Wherever it sits — near Brethen's Meeting Room, in a lay-by en route to Plot 17, on a drive — that is where it gets cleared. Tricky to pin down, like the back of Wellsprings Leisure Centre? By a border? Asking is better than assuming, and so phone.
For Dodhill drivers, the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Keep the vehicle switched off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, throughout Somerset.