AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Fishponds: How It Occurs and How to Avoid It
Keep the motor and ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. A drain and a thorough flush, done just where your car stands in Fishponds, is normally what it takes when caught before the motor runs. Here before the event? In that case the rest covers why it comes about and what to stop it ever happening.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Diesel goes to your motor — but many modern diesels seen about Fishponds and Broomhill carry a second liquid too. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, and there spraying treats the gas.
Each tank has its own filler. Plenty of cars share a single flap for the two, whereas some move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled on each forecourt call-out, week in, week out. Rarely filled, AdBlue normally comes from a bottle, tipped by someone who must stop and think which cap it needs. It is in that gap that the mistake happens.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Fishponds: how it occurs
It's seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Haste comes from the warning. The vehicle tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a drive off Fishponds Road, or heading home in the car park at Snuffy Jack's Ale House.
Next, your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old vehicle — because a rental car, a new motor or a company car places the fillers where your last one didn't.
Nothing halts the tip after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It takes a few seconds, whether out in Mayfield Park or bang in the heart of Fishponds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Staple Hill or a forecourt in Fishponds, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Look for it.
- Can't see it next to your diesel inlet? Then look below the bonnet or inside your boot — the owner's manual will say where.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park at Stapleton Road? Check with the person who drove the vehicle last before leaving, rather than when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
Anywhere around Bristol the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Manor Road, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park then switch off first.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew it. It seems silly. It does the trick.
- The two under one flap? Then confirm the lid on the diesel filler stays shut ahead of raising the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start your car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Find during the second or third step that AdBlue went into the wrong filler? That is where you stop. Leave out step five entirely.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Fishponds already?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your motor. The fuel pump runs on many diesels the moment the ignition goes on — so leave it off. Thinning it with more diesel won't work, because AdBlue settles to the base instead of blending — and that's where your fuel is sucked from.
On a forecourt — Morrisons, BP or another — the attendants will normally help push the car clear, when you ask. If you're on your own drive around Fishponds, leave the car where it sits.
When your engine has run by now, stop safely and switch the vehicle off. Fishponds lies under a mile from the M32; there, use the first exit. A short hop across Fishponds is a smaller job than a run towards Bristol, under 5 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
When our engineers get there around Fishponds, what takes place?
Outside Avanti Gardens School, near War Memorials or on your own driveway: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our technicians come to it. The answers determine this work and the quote, so we ask what went in, about how much, and if it's run. That price is given on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
Then your tank is emptied and the system purged thoroughly. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and neither washes out unaided. That is why it matters more. Once your filter is flushed — or renewed, where needed — clean diesel goes in, and then the vehicle is tested. Your engine is fired up next and checked to be sure it runs smoothly, all before our technicians leave.
With pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where the motor hasn't run take about half an hour after we arrive. No money upfront; you settle up that day. At the end, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Fishponds itself
Fishponds is a locality situated inland, approximately 3.7 miles from Bristol city centre, with an elevation of around 61 metres. Fishponds is characterised by its semi-detached housing stock and is located near several local amenities, including Mayfield Park. Fishponds forms part of the larger Bristol urban area, with easy access to the city's facilities. Fishponds has a population of around 5334 residents.
Fishponds and Bristol: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout BS postcodes, the teams covering Fishponds — a small village — work the nearby spots too, Ridgeway and Hillfields among them. A postcode starting BS16 3 gets our van to you fastest.
The car remains put. The drain happens right there, be it a drive, a road by Hannah More, or a lay-by on the way to Fishponds Park. Tricky to pin down, like the back of Beechwood Club? By a border? Asking beats guessing, so phone.
In short, for Fishponds drivers
First, the cap; then, the tip. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it where it is, anywhere across Bristol: switch the car off and ring 0333 366 0103.