AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Hartcliffe: Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case set this page down a moment, leave the ignition and engine off, and call 0333 366 0103. Normally, when your motor has not run, it is drained and thoroughly rinsed where your vehicle is in Hartcliffe. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it does not.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Diesel goes to your engine — but plenty of modern diesels seen round Hartcliffe and Bishopsworth hold a second fluid too. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, where a spray treats the gas.
Different tanks, separate fillers. Some motors keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot more place both together under one flap. At the petrol pump, the diesel side is topped up constantly. Seldom topped up, AdBlue normally goes in from a bottle, poured by a driver who has to stop and think what filler it needs. It is in that gap that the mistake lives.
Hartcliffe: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
On a driveway off Hareclive Road before work, or in the car park outside Hartcliffe Inn heading home: that is where the rushed top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low the vehicle warns you, and once it's empty, limp mode kicks in.
Unfamiliar cars are second, too. Hire cars, new cars and company motors put their fillers in new places, and habit reaches for the cap it used on the old one.
Nothing stops the tip once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Hengrove Park or the middle of Hartcliffe: it takes the same few seconds in both.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A few seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Withywood or a forecourt around Hartcliffe.
- Check the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually are not.
- On many motors, size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Look inside the fuel flap: many cars have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by the diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at Parson Street, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
For the day the warning comes on — wherever it is around Bristol — a routine to use.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Sampsons Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" aloud as unscrewing it. It seems daft. It does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. When the two sit under a flap, confirm it's shut before lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start your car: close the cap, check again, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Don't go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Hartcliffe?
Brief order, then. Top of that: your engine remains off. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch the car on. Topping up with diesel will not thin it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of the tank, right where fuel is drawn from.
Ask the staff to help push the vehicle clear of the petrol pump if you are at a forecourt — the Morrisons, the Esso or anywhere else. Your own driveway around Hartcliffe is the place it stays.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Come off the M32 — under 5 miles out of Hartcliffe — at the next junction. About how far did it go? Hopping across Hartcliffe is less a job than a trip of under 5 miles towards Bristol, and so tell us.
What happens when our technicians get there in Hartcliffe
Anywhere the vehicle has stopped, be it outside Hareclive E-ACT Academy, beside South Bristol Methodist Church or at home, the van travels to it. Both the work and our quote depend on three replies — what fluid, what amount, and whether it has run — so our engineers ask. During the phone call itself, you hear our price — before anything else.
After that: draining, then a thorough flush of the whole system. Much more than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: the crystals build up, some metals are attacked, and nothing washes away on its own, no matter how long it is left. Once the filter is flushed — or replaced, if needed — fresh diesel is added, and finally your vehicle gets tested. Before we leave, we fire it up and make sure that it's running correctly.
If your motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents an insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Before we get there, have a look at your policy; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Hartcliffe itself
Hartcliffe is a suburban area in Bristol, situated near the River Avon and approximately 3.2 miles from the city centre. Hartcliffe has a mix of housing types, but is predominantly characterised by terraced homes. Hartcliffe sits at an elevation of around 56 metres, in a location that is relatively flat and close to nearby green spaces like Hengrove Park. Hartcliffe is part of the larger Bristol urban area, which is around 106.5 miles west of London.
AdBlue drains around Hartcliffe and across Bristol
Hartcliffe is a residential suburb, and the vans that cover it also work the towns around it, Inns Court and Whitchurch among them, across the BS postcode area. Give a postcode beginning BS13 0, and the van gets there fastest.
The car remains where it is. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near Hartcliffe Library, a lay-by on the way to Hartcliffe Millennium Green, a drive. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Saint Andrew's? By a county line? Asking is better than assuming, so ring.
In short, for Hartcliffe motorists
Read the cap before you pour. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it where it is, anywhere in Bristol: keep the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103.