Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Ham Green
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and the ignition off and call 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, done right where the vehicle sits in Ham Green, is normally what it takes if found before your engine runs. Reading before the event? In that case the rest explains how it happens and what to prevent it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Diesel feeds your motor — yet many current diesels seen around Ham Green and Shirehampton hold a second liquid too. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Every tank comes with a filler of its own. Some motors keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot more place the two together behind one flap. Diesel goes in at each filling station call-out, again and again. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less frequently. That gap is where the error lives.
Ham Green: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
It's seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Macrae Road before work, or in the car park outside Kings Head Inn on the way home.
Unfamiliar cars come second, as well. Rentals, new vehicles and company cars put their fillers in new places, and habit reaches for the cap it used on the old one.
No part halts the pour after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Ham Green or out in Pill.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you pour anything, on a drive in Abbots Leigh or a forecourt in Ham Green.
- Check the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally aren't.
- Many motors give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Open the flap and check for a label — many motors mark what belongs in which inlet right there.
- Cannot find it next to your diesel filler? In that case look below the bonnet or in the boot — the owner's manual will say where.
- Whoever had it before will know. Check as you pick up a rental or company car — from Shirehampton's car park, say — not when the warning comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
When the light comes on, wherever in Somerset, follow this routine.
- Switch off after you park — level ground, motor off, and not in a rush beside Cabot Way at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. When the two share a flap, make sure it is shut before the bottle comes up.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Discover during the second or third step that AdBlue went into the wrong filler? That's where you stop. Never go on to stage five.
Ham Green: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with not starting your engine. Leave the ignition off as well, since on many diesels switching it on alone starts the fuel pump. Thinning it with more diesel won't work, since AdBlue settles to the bottom instead of mixing — and that's where the fuel is pulled from.
The attendants at MFS, Lodway Service Station or another forecourt will normally help to push the car clear if you ask. On your own drive in Ham Green? Then the car stays put.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your engine has already run. The next junction is where to leave if you are on the M5, under a mile from Ham Green. Mileage counts — a quick hop across Ham Green makes a smaller job than heading under 5 miles to Bristol — so say about how far it went.
Our arrival in Ham Green, and what takes place next
Our technicians come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Crockerne Church of England Primary School, near The Salvation Army - Pill or on your own drive. Our technicians ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it has run, because those answers settle the work and our quote. No one heads out before you have heard our price over the phone.
Then the tank is cleared and the system flushed thoroughly. 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 fuel filter has been cleaned — or renewed, if required — clean diesel goes in, and finally the car gets tested. We do not leave until it has been started and is running correctly.
If your engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Misfuelling cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — so use the wait to check yours.
About Ham Green and where it is
Ham Green is a suburban area located on the coastal outskirts of Bristol, with nearby settlements including Pill, Lodway, and Easton-in-Gordano. Ham Green sits at an elevation of around 30 metres, close to the mouth of the River Avon, and is characterized by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock. Ham Green is situated approximately 3.8 miles from Bristol city centre, making it a popular residential area for those working in the city. Ham Green has a population of around 2518 residents, according to recent estimates.
AdBlue drains across Somerset, Ham Green included
Throughout BS postcodes, the vans that cover Ham Green — a residential suburb — work the surrounding places too, Easton-in-Gordano and Lodway among them. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting BS20 0.
Shifting your car isn't necessary. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street near Pill Methodist Church, a lay-by on the way to Lodway Cricket Club, a drive. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you're near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Christ Church.
For Ham Green motorists, the short version
Always, the cap; then, the pour. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it where it stands, anywhere in Somerset: keep the vehicle off then phone 0333 366 0103.