Gomeldon: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Pause here a minute if the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and phone 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, done right where the car stands around Gomeldon, is normally what it takes when caught before your motor runs. Here before the event? In that case the rest covers why it comes about and what to prevent it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Diesel feeds your engine — yet many current diesels seen round Gomeldon and Porton carry a second liquid as well. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Plenty of cars share a single flap for the two, while others move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Topping up your diesel side at the pump happens constantly. Seldom topped up, AdBlue normally comes from a bottle, poured by someone who must stop and think which filler to use. Mistakes happen in the gap between the two.
Gomeldon: how AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the car drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Ladysmith before work, or in the car park at Winterbourne Arms on the way home.
Then, your hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old motor — because a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
A spout-topped bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, after started, keeps on. East Gomeldon or the middle of Gomeldon: it takes the same few seconds in both.
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 driveway in Winterbourne Dauntsey or a forecourt around Gomeldon.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler is if it is not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Salisbury.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
For the day the light comes on — anywhere you are around Wiltshire — a simple routine to follow.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Hillside Drive.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, yes, yet it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the vehicle on.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before starting your car, shut the cap and look a second time that your diesel cap was never opened off.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Never go on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Gomeldon already?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with not starting the engine. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch it on. Thinning it with more diesel won't work, because AdBlue settles to the base instead of blending — and that's where your fuel is pulled from.
Ask the staff to help push the car clear of the petrol pump if you're at a forecourt — the Murco, the BP or anywhere else. Your own drive around Gomeldon is the place it should stay.
When your motor has been run already, stop somewhere safe and turn the vehicle off. Gomeldon sits under 15 miles from the M27; there, take the next exit. About how far did it go? Hopping across Gomeldon is less a job than a run of under 5 miles to Salisbury, so say.
What occurs when our technicians get there around Gomeldon
Our technicians come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Gomeldon Primary School, near St Mary or on your own driveway. Which liquid went in, the amount, and whether it ran: we ask because the answers decide both work and quote. No one heads out until you have heard our quote by phone.
Then that tank is cleared and your system flushed thoroughly. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and neither washes out unaided. Hence it matters more. After your filter is flushed — or renewed, where needed — fresh diesel is added, and then your vehicle gets tested. The motor is started next and checked to be sure it runs correctly, all before our engineers leave.
With pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your motor hasn't run need about half an hour once our engineers are there. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork an insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. It is worth looking at your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Gomeldon itself
Gomeldon is a small village situated on the banks of the River Avon in Wiltshire, with a mix of detached homes and a rural landscape. Gomeldon sits at an elevation of 71 metres, close to the city of Salisbury, which is approximately 4.4 miles away. Gomeldon has a population of around 583 residents, living in a predominantly detached housing environment. Gomeldon is located near other small settlements, including East Gomeldon and West Gomeldon.
AdBlue drains round Gomeldon, and Wiltshire beyond
Gomeldon is a village, and the vans that cover it also work the places near it, West Gomeldon and Winterbourne Gunner among them, across the SP postcode area. Quote a postcode beginning SP4 6, and the van gets there quickest.
The vehicle doesn't need to move. The drain happens on the spot, whether a driveway, a road by St Nicholas, or a layby towards Winterbourne Recreation Ground. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Idmiston Memorial Hall? Close to a county line? Asking beats guessing, and so ring.
For Gomeldon people, the short version
Read the cap before you tip. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it where it is, anywhere around Wiltshire: keep the car off and ring 0333 366 0103.