Frome: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Leave your engine and ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Caught before the motor runs, it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Frome. Nothing happened yet? Below, the page covers the reasons it happens and the how to avoid it for good.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Diesel goes to the engine — but many current diesels driven around Frome and Cottles Oak hold a second fluid as well. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust stream to clean it.
Each tank has its own filler. Plenty of vehicles share a single flap for both, whereas some move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Filling the diesel side at the pump goes on all the time. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less often. Mistakes happen in that gap between the two.
Frome: how AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place
Carelessness seldom explains it. Instead is three things lining up together.
Haste follows from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a driveway off Market Place, or on the way home in the car park outside 23 Bath Street.
Then your car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spouted bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, after begun, carries on. Whether it takes place in Keyford or the middle of Frome, it's the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A few seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you tip anything, on a drive in Easthill or a forecourt around Frome.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually isn't. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- The size. On plenty of vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on many vehicles. Look for it.
- Cannot see it beside your diesel inlet? In that case look beneath the bonnet or in the boot — the handbook says where.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at the nearest station, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Somerset that is.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Stony Street.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, yes, but it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, then look again — confirm your diesel filler stayed closed throughout. After that, start the car.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Do not go on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Frome already?
Brief order, then. First: the engine remains unstarted. Leave your ignition off too, since on many diesels switching it on alone runs the fuel pump. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is pulled from.
The attendants at Texaco, Asda or another forecourt will normally lend a hand to push the car away when asked. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway around Frome.
Already started? Stop once it's safe, then turn off. Frome lies under 25 miles from the M4; on it, take the next junction. A short hop across Frome is a smaller job than a run towards Bath, under 15 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
Frome: what happens when our engineers turn up
Our van comes to your car wherever it stopped — your own driveway, beside Westway Cinema, or outside St John's Church of England Voluntary Aided First School, Frome. Which liquid got in, the amount, and whether it ran: we ask because the answers decide the work and price. You get that price by phone, before anyone heads out.
Draining your tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of your system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more here than with petrol. After the filter has been flushed — or replaced, if needed — fresh diesel goes in, and finally the vehicle is tested. Next our technicians fire it up and check it runs properly before leaving.
Unstarted vehicles usually need a half-hour visit from the moment we arrive. The kit is safe on a live filling station, and quiet enough for a residential street late at night. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork an insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. It's worth checking your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Frome and where it is
Frome is a town situated in Somerset, England, characterised by its riverside location and elevated position near the Mendip Hills. The town's setting is marked by its proximity to the River Frome, which runs through it. Frome is located near the city of Bath, making it a notable settlement in the region. Its scenic position and natural surroundings make it a distinctive town in the area.
Frome and Somerset: AdBlue drains across the area
Being a riverside town, Frome has the same vans as surrounding areas — Fromefield, The Butts — right through BA postcodes and the surrounding area around them. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting BA11 1.
The vehicle stays where it is. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street close to St John the Baptist, a lay-by on the way to Mary Bailey Playing Fields, a drive. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you are near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Marks & Spencer.
In short, for Frome drivers
Pour no AdBlue until you have read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Keep the vehicle off then phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, across Somerset.