Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Fox Hill: Why It Occurs
Keep the motor and ignition off and call 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Normally, if your motor has not turned, it's emptied and fully cleaned where your vehicle sits around Fox Hill. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page explains the why it occurs and the ways to avoid it for good.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Many newer diesels on the roads about Fox Hill and Bear Flat carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Different tanks, different fillers. Plenty of vehicles share a single flap for the two, while others put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Topping up the diesel side at the pump happens all the time. Rarely topped up, AdBlue normally goes in out of a bottle, poured by someone who must stop and think what filler to use. That gap is where the slip lives.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank take place in Fox Hill?
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
Hurry follows from the warning. Your car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a driveway off Fox Hill, or heading home in the car park at The Forester and Flower.
The old car's cap is where your hand goes — yet a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That is the second factor: a new motor.
A spouted bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, after started, keeps on. Combe Down or the heart of Fox Hill: it is the same few seconds either way.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Check these before pouring, on a forecourt around Fox Hill or a driveway over in Bloomfield. Seconds, that's all.
- Read the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue caps are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually aren't.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler sits if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Whoever had it before knows. Ask when you pick up a hire car or company car — from Bath Spa's car park, say — not once the warning comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Somerset that is.
- Pull in somewhere level, motor off, with time to spare — never hurried on the side of Bradford Park.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, yes, yet 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.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Find at stage two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? Then stop just there. Skip stage five altogether.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Fox Hill already?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the motor. The fuel pump starts on many diesels as soon as your ignition goes on — so leave it off. Thinning it with extra diesel won't work, because AdBlue sinks to the bottom rather than blending — and that is where your fuel is sucked from.
The staff at Esso, Sainsbury's or any forecourt will usually help to push the vehicle clear if you ask. If you're on your own drive in Fox Hill, leave the vehicle where it stands.
Where your motor has run by now, stop somewhere safe and switch the car off. On the M4, under 10 miles from Fox Hill, that means the next junction. A short hop across Fox Hill is a smaller job than a run towards Bath, under 3 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
When our engineers arrive around Fox Hill, what occurs?
Wherever the car has stopped, be it by Mulberry Park Educate Together Primary Academy, beside St. Andrew or on your own drive, the van travels to it. What fluid went in, the amount, and if it ran: we ask because the answers decide both work and price. The price comes over the phone, before any van leaves.
Next: a drain, then a full flush of the entire system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and none of it washes out unaided. Hence it counts more. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. We do not go until it has been started and is running correctly.
Unstarted vehicles usually mean a half-hour visit from the moment we arrive. The kit is fine on a live forecourt, and quiet enough for a residential street after dark. Your insurer will ask for the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours once this job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. It is worth checking your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Fox Hill
Fox Hill is a suburban area situated on the outskirts of Bath in Somerset, with a riverside setting that offers scenic views. Fox Hill sits at an elevation of 156 metres, close to nearby places such as Combe Down and Lyncombe Vale. Fox Hill has a mix of housing types, but is predominantly characterised by terraced homes. Fox Hill is located approximately 1.3 miles from the city centre of Bath, making it a popular residential choice.
AdBlue drains round Fox Hill, and Somerset beyond
Lyncombe Vale and Perrymead are among the places near Fox Hill, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, over BA postcodes. Quickest of all: give a BA2 5 postcode for our van.
Moving the car is not necessary. The drain happens on the spot, be it a drive, a street near Foxhill Community Centre, or a layby on the way to Springfield Park. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you are near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Museum of Bath Stone.
For Fox Hill motorists, the short version
Pour nothing until you have read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave it off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it waits, anywhere around Somerset.