AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Farmborough: Why It Happens and How to Avoid It
Leave your motor and ignition off and call 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Caught before your engine runs, it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Farmborough. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Many newer diesels around Bloomfield, as well as Farmborough, carry on two fluids; your motor gets just the diesel. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust stream and cleans it.
Different tanks, different fillers. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the layout on a lot of motors. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in your boot instead. Topping up the diesel side at the petrol pump goes on constantly. The AdBlue side is topped up far less commonly, normally from a bottle, and normally by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. The slip lives in that gap.
Farmborough: how AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place
Carelessness seldom causes it. What does is three things coming up at once.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the car, and running out leads to limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, maybe before work off The Mead, perhaps outside The Butchers Arms on the way home that evening.
Then, the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old vehicle — because a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers where your last one didn't.
A spout-topped bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, once started, carries on. It's seconds, be it in Hobbs Wall or right in the heart of Farmborough.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Check these first, on a forecourt in Farmborough or a driveway out in Tyning. A few seconds, no more.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally isn't. Read it instead of going by position.
- On many vehicles, the size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Open the flap and check for a label — many cars show which belongs in which inlet right there.
- The handbook says where it lives when your filler is not next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Keynsham, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
For the day the warning appears — wherever it is around Somerset — a simple routine to use.
- Switch off after you park — level ground, engine stopped, and never rushed by Church Lane on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It seems silly. It does the trick.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Finish when your tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; until then, pour slowly through its built-in spout.
- Before starting the car, close the cap and check again that your diesel cap never came off.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Don't go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Farmborough?
Brief list, then. First: your engine stays unstarted. The fuel pump runs on many diesels as soon as the ignition is switched on — and so keep it off. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is pulled from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it is the Murco or the Murco Fual, ask the staff to help roll the vehicle clear of the petrol pump. If you are on your own drive around Farmborough, leave it where it stands.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the engine has already run. On the M32, under 10 miles from Farmborough, that means the next junction. About how far did it go? Crossing Farmborough is smaller a job than a run of under 10 miles towards Bath, so say.
Farmborough: what happens when our engineers turn up
Our van reaches the vehicle anywhere it has come to rest — your own driveway, beside All Saints Farmborough, or outside Farmborough Church Primary School. Both the work and the quote depend on three answers — which fluid, which quantity, and if it's run — so we ask. That price is given on the call, before any van leaves.
After that: draining, then a full flush of the entire system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that matters more here than with petrol. Filter flushed or, where needed, replaced; fresh diesel in; then a test of the car. Next our engineers start the car and confirm it runs properly before we go.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour once our technicians arrive, provided your motor has not run — and the pumps we use are safe on a busy forecourt yet quiet after dark outside a house. No money in advance; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. Before we get there, have a look at your insurance documents; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Farmborough
Farmborough is a village in Somerset, situated on the banks of a river at an elevation of around 114 metres. Farmborough lies near the city of Bath, approximately 6 miles to the east, and is surrounded by nearby places such as Hobbs Wall and Barrow Vale. Farmborough has a population of around 1106 people, predominantly living in detached houses. Farmborough is located in the South West region of England, about 102 miles west of London.
AdBlue drains around Farmborough and across Somerset
Farmborough is a village, and our teams that cover it also work the towns around it, Barrow Vale and Wall Mead among them, across the BA postcode area. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting BA2 0.
There's no need to shift your car. The drain takes place on the spot, whether a drive, a street near Farmborough Memorial Hall, or a lay-by towards Hungerford Bottom. Guessing won't help at the back of Church of St Peter, on a border, or anywhere hard to describe; phone and check.
Farmborough people: the short version
Tip no AdBlue until you've read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway, leave it off then call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it stands, anywhere in Somerset.