How It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Fownhope
Leave your engine and ignition off and call 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Around Fownhope, finding it before your engine turns usually means a drain and a thorough flush on the spot. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel feeds the motor — but plenty of modern diesels seen around Fownhope and Upper Buckenhill hold another fluid too. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Different tanks, separate fillers. Many of cars have a single flap for both, while some move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Filling your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on constantly. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less often, usually from a bottle, and usually by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. The slip lives in that gap.
Fownhope: how AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place
It's rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out completely, your vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Ferry Lane before work, or in the car park outside The Green Man on the way home.
Next, your hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old motor — because a hire car, a new motor or a company car places the fillers where your last one did not.
A spouted bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, after started, keeps on. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Fownhope or out in Common Hill.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Look at these first, at a forecourt around Fownhope or a drive out in Ballingham Hill. Seconds, that's all.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Trust the cap, not its position.
- Plenty of vehicles fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Open the filler flap and look for a label — plenty of vehicles show which belongs in each inlet just there.
- Cannot find it next to your diesel inlet? Then check below the bonnet or inside the boot — the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Hereford? Ask whoever drove the car last before you set off, rather than once the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
For the day the light comes on — wherever it is in Herefordshire — a routine to follow.
- Stop somewhere level, motor off, with time to spare — not hurried on the side of Scotch Firs.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, perhaps, but it does the trick.
- Both under one flap? So make sure the cap on your diesel filler stays closed before raising the bottle.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Before starting the vehicle, close the cap and look again that your diesel cap never came off.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Skip step five altogether.
Fownhope: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your motor. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels as soon as your ignition goes on — so leave it off. AdBlue doesn't 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.
Ask the staff to help roll the vehicle away from the petrol pump if you're at a forecourt — the BP, the Esso or anywhere else. Your own driveway in Fownhope is the place it should stay.
When the engine has run already, stop somewhere safe and switch it off. Leave the M50 — under 10 miles out of Fownhope — at the first junction. A short hop across Fownhope is a smaller job than a run towards Hereford, under 10 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
What occurs when our engineers arrive in Fownhope
We come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside St Mary's CofE Primary School, close to Wye Leisure or on your own drive. What fluid went in, the quantity, and if it ran: our technicians ask because those replies set both work and quote. On the phone call itself, you hear the quote — before dispatch.
The fuel system is then purged thoroughly, after that tank is drained. Much more than with petrol, it matters here: crystals build up, certain metals corrode, and nothing clears out on its own, however long it is left. The filter cleaned or, if it must be, replaced; fresh diesel in; and then a check of the vehicle. After that we start the car and check it runs smoothly before leaving.
Unrun cars usually need a half-hour visit from the moment we arrive. The equipment is fine on a live filling station, and hushed enough for a residential street after dark. The insurer usually wants the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Fownhope and where it is
Fownhope is a village in Herefordshire, situated on the banks of the River Wye at an elevation of 52 metres. Fownhope lies approximately 5 miles south of Hereford and 112 miles west of London, with nearby areas including Common Hill and Fiddlers Green. Fownhope has a population of around 768 people, predominantly living in detached houses. Fownhope is characterized by its riverside setting and surrounding countryside.
AdBlue drains across Herefordshire, Fownhope included
Being a village, Fownhope shares its vans nearby places — Fiddlers Green, Even Pits — all the way through HR postcodes and the wider area around them. A postcode starting HR1 4 gets the van to you fastest.
The vehicle does not need to move. Wherever it stands — near Fownhope New Memorial Hall, in a lay-by heading to Nover Wood, on a drive — that's where it is drained. Awkward to pin down, like the back of St Mary? Close to a county line? Checking beats assuming, and so phone.
The short version for Fownhope people
First, the cap; then, the pour. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway, leave the car off and ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it waits, anywhere in Herefordshire.