Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Greenhill: Why It Occurs
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and your ignition off and call 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, carried out right where your car sits around Greenhill, is normally all it needs when found before your motor runs. Not happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page covers the why it occurs and the how to avoid it altogether.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Many newer diesels on the roads around Greenhill and Pickwick carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. AdBlue goes to the 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 vehicles share a single flap for both, while others put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is filled at the petrol pump all the time. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less commonly. The mistake grows in that gap between the two.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen in Greenhill?
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from the car, and letting it run dry leads to limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Shearwater Way, or at Neston Country Inn on the way home after work.
The old car's cap is where your hand reaches — but a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That is a second factor: an unfamiliar car.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the tip after it has started. Whether it happens in Hudswell or the middle of Greenhill, it is the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Whether a Greenhill forecourt or a drive over in Rudloe, spend a few seconds on these before any is poured in.
- Check the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally aren't.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of cars say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows where it lives if your filler is not next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Melksham, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Wiltshire that is.
- Stop somewhere level, motor off, with time in hand — never hurried on the side of Upper Potley.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap works — after you've located your filler and read the cap.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Finish when that tank fills or the bottle is empty; until then, tip slowly using the own spout.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Do not go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Greenhill?
Do not start your engine: that's where the short order of things starts. Leave your ignition off too, since on many diesels switching it on alone starts the pump. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is sucked from.
At a forecourt — Texaco, Shell or any other — the staff will usually help push your car clear, if you ask. Your own drive around Greenhill is where it should stay.
Already started? Stop once it is sensible, then switch off. The next junction is the place to leave if you are on the M4, under 10 miles from Greenhill. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Bath, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Greenhill.
Our arrival in Greenhill, and what takes place next
We come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Neston Primary School, near Potley & Pockeridge Community Centre or on your own driveway. Both the work and our quote rest on three replies — which liquid, which amount, and whether it has run — so our technicians ask. You hear that price by phone, before anyone heads out.
Then the tank is drained and your system flushed thoroughly. More than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: crystals form, certain metals are attacked, and none of that washes away unaided, however long it sits. Filter flushed or, where needed, replaced; clean diesel in; then a check of your car. The engine is started next and checked to be sure it runs smoothly, all before our engineers head off.
With pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where the motor hasn't run take roughly half an hour once our technicians arrive. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork an insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. It is worth checking your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Greenhill and where it is
Greenhill is a suburban area in Wiltshire, situated inland at an elevation of 104 metres, approximately 7 miles from the city of Bath. Greenhill has a population of around 1845 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Greenhill is located near other small places such as Hudswell, Westwells, and Neston, and is about 90 miles west of London.
AdBlue drains around Greenhill, and Wiltshire beyond
Over SN postcodes, our vans that cover Greenhill — a residential suburb — work the surrounding spots too, Neston and Westwells among them. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting SN13 9.
There's no need to move the vehicle. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Paddock Wood, a side street near Neston Community Centre: we drain the vehicle where it stands. Guessing doesn't help behind MOD Corsham Gymnasium, on a border, or anywhere awkward to pin down; ring and check.
For Greenhill people, the short version
Read the cap before you tip. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave the vehicle off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere in Wiltshire.