Why It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in East End
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then put this page down for now, keep your ignition and engine off, and phone 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, done just where your vehicle stands in East End, is normally all it needs if found before the motor runs. Here in advance? In that case the rest explains how it happens and how to prevent it happening at all.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Many newer diesels on the roads around East End and Rickford carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the layout on many cars. On others, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. At the pump, your diesel side gets filled all the time. Far less regularly, the AdBlue side is filled — mostly from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. The mistake grows in that gap between the two.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs in East End
It is rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out completely, the car drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off The Old Water Gardens before work, or in the car park at New Inn on the way home.
Unfamiliar motors come second, as well. Rentals, new vehicles and company vehicles place their fillers in new places, and the hand goes for the cap it used on the old one.
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 tip after it has started. It takes a few seconds, be it in Street End or right in the heart of East End.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you pour anything, on a driveway in West Town or a forecourt around East End.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Trust the cap, not its position.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside the fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on many motors. Look for it.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler sits if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- The previous driver knows. Ask when you pick up a hire car or company car — from Nailsea & Backwell's car park, perhaps — not when the light appears.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
When the light comes on, wherever in Somerset, follow this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Church Street, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park then switch off properly.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, perhaps, but it does the trick.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Find at stage two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? Then stop right there. Do not go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in East End?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with not starting the motor. The fuel pump runs on many diesels the moment the ignition goes on — and so keep it off. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
Ask the attendants to help push your car clear of the pump if you're on a forecourt — the Pace, the Esso or somewhere else. If you're on your own driveway in East End, leave the vehicle where it sits.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your motor has already run. The next junction means the place to come off when you are on the M5, under 10 miles from East End. A short hop across East End is a smaller job than a run towards Wells, under 10 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
When our technicians turn up in East End, what happens?
Our van comes to the car anywhere it stopped — your own drive, near Saint Andrew's, or by Blagdon Primary School. The answers settle the work and our price, and so our engineers ask what got in, about how much, and if it has run. No one heads out before you've heard the quote over the phone.
Then the tank is drained and the system purged thoroughly. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and neither washes out by itself. That is why it counts more. Once the fuel filter is flushed — or replaced, where needed — fresh diesel is added, and then your car is tested. Before we leave, our engineers fire it up and check that it's running correctly.
If your engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. The insurer will ask for an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. While we travel, take a look at your policy; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About East End, briefly
East End is a suburban area in Somerset, situated inland at an elevation of 111 metres, approximately 8.5 miles from the city of Wells. East End is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting the area's residential nature. East End is also located near other small settlements, including Street End and Blagdon, and is part of the wider South West region of England.
AdBlue drains about East End, and Somerset beyond
Throughout BS postcodes, the vans covering East End — a residential suburb — work the nearby places too, West End and Blagdon among them. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting BS40 7.
No need to shift the car. Draining happens right there, whether a drive, a road near Blagdon Village Club, or a layby towards Blagdon Cricket Club. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you are near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Blagdon Pumping Station & Visitor Centre.
East End motorists: the short version
Read the cap before you pour. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it wherever it stands, anywhere across Somerset: switch the car off and phone 0333 366 0103.