How It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Eastington
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. Around Eastington, catching it before your motor runs usually leaves draining and a thorough flush on the spot. Here in advance? Then the rest covers why it comes about and how to stop it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of newer diesels in Churchend, like those in Eastington, carry on two liquids; the motor gets only the diesel. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it.
There is a filler on every tank. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in on each filling station call-out, again and again. Rarely topped up, AdBlue usually comes from a bottle, tipped by a driver who must stop and think what filler it needs. It's in the gap that the slip happens.
Eastington: how AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs
Carelessness seldom explains it. What does is three things coming up together.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Alkerton Road before work, or in the car park at The Old Badger on the way home.
New-to-you cars are second, too. Hire cars, new cars and company vehicles place their fillers differently, and the hand reaches for the cap used on the old one.
Third, the spout goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in as easily, and after the pour begins, no part stops it. It takes seconds, whether out in Bath Street or bang in the heart of Eastington.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Check these before pouring, at a forecourt in Eastington or a driveway over in Cress Green. Seconds, that's all.
- Position can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally do not.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside your fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on many vehicles. Look for it.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by the diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at Stonehouse, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
On the day the light appears — wherever it is in Gloucestershire — a simple routine to use.
- Stop on level, engine off, with time to spare — never rushing on the side of Bath 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.
- 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 the tank fills or the bottle is empty; until then, tip slowly using the own spout.
- Shut the cap, and look once more — making sure the diesel filler remained closed throughout. After that, start the car.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Stage five stays out.
Eastington: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with no starting the engine. Keep the ignition off too, because on many diesels switching it on by itself runs the fuel pump. Thinning it with more diesel won't work, since AdBlue sinks to the base rather than blending — and that's where your fuel is sucked from.
The attendants at Shell, Texaco or any forecourt will usually help pushing the vehicle away when you ask. On your own drive around Eastington? Then your car stays where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your motor has already run. The next exit is the place to leave when you are on the M5, under a mile from Eastington. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Eastington is less a job than a trip of under 10 miles towards Gloucester, and so say.
Our arrival in Eastington, and what happens next
Anywhere the car came to rest, be it outside Eastington Primary School, near Saint Michaels and All Angels or at home, the van comes to it. The replies determine this work and our price, and so our engineers ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it's run. No one heads out before you've had our price over the phone.
Draining your tank comes next, then a full flush of the fuel system. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and none of it washes away unaided. Hence it counts more. Once the fuel filter has been flushed — or replaced, if required — fresh diesel is added, and finally the car gets tested. We don't leave until it has been fired up and is running smoothly.
If the engine hasn't run, most 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. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It's worth looking at your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Eastington itself
Eastington is a village in Gloucestershire, situated near the coast at an elevation of 29 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Eastington lies close to the city of Gloucester, approximately 8.9 miles away, and is also within reach of other nearby places such as Bath Street and Claypits. Eastington has a population of around 1218 residents, living in a mix of old and new buildings. Eastington is located in the South West region of England, about 95.8 miles from London.
Eastington and Gloucestershire: AdBlue drains across the area
Eastington is a coastal village, and our teams that cover it also work the places near it, Claypits and Middle Street among them, across the GL postcode area. Quickest of all: quote a GL10 3 postcode to the van.
Your car doesn't need to move. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Owen Harris Memorial Ground, a side street close to St Peter's Church: we drain the vehicle where it is. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of St Andrew.
For Eastington motorists, the short version
Always, the cap; then, the pour. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave the car off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it stands, anywhere in Gloucestershire.