AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Henstridge: Why It Happens and How to Prevent It
Leave your engine and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. A drain and a thorough flush, done right where the vehicle sits around Henstridge, is usually all it takes if caught before your motor runs. Reading in advance? In that case what follows explains why it comes about and how to prevent it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Diesel goes to the motor — but plenty of current diesels driven about Henstridge and Higher Marsh carry a second liquid too. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it.
There's a filler for each tank. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, the diesel side gets filled all the time. Far less regularly, the AdBlue side gets filled — mostly from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. That gap is where the mistake lives.
Henstridge: how AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
On a driveway off A357 before work, or in the car park at Bird in Hand heading home: that's where the rushed top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low the car tells you, and once it's empty, limp mode follows.
Then the car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
No part stops the tip 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 Henstridge or out in Henstridge Ash.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Be it a Henstridge forecourt or a drive over in Yenston, spend a few seconds on these before any goes in.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally don't.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Check inside the fuel flap: plenty of motors have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by your diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Ask as you pick up a rental or fleet car — at Templecombe's car park, perhaps — rather than when the light appears.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Somerset that is.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of The Cross.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you have located your filler and read it.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, then check again — making sure the diesel cap stayed closed the whole time. Only then, start the car.
Find during the second or third stage that AdBlue went in the diesel filler? That is where you stop. Skip step five altogether.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Henstridge?
Brief order, then. Top of that: your motor remains unstarted. The fuel pump runs on many diesels the moment your ignition is switched on — so keep it off. Topping up with diesel won't weaken it: instead, AdBlue drops to the base of your tank, right where the fuel is drawn from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it is the Murco or the Valero, ask the attendants to help push your car clear of the pump. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive around Henstridge.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your motor has already run. Henstridge sits under 50 miles from the M5; there, use the first exit. A short hop across Henstridge is a smaller job than a run towards Wells, under 25 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
Henstridge: what occurs when our technicians turn up
Our van comes to your car anywhere it stopped — your own driveway, beside St Nicholas, or by St Nicholas CofE Primary School, Henstridge. We ask what was put in, about how much, and if it's run, because the replies settle this work and our quote. You hear that price by phone, before anybody sets off.
Then your tank is emptied and the system cleaned thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. A test is last: before that, fresh diesel is added, and the fuel filter is flushed or changed as needed. Before we go, our technicians fire it up and make sure that it is running properly.
With pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the engine has not run take roughly half an hour after our engineers arrive. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Before we get there, have a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Henstridge itself
Henstridge is a village in Somerset, situated in the south west of England, with a population of around 1579 people. Henstridge sits inland at an elevation of 79 metres, approximately 19 miles from the city of Wells and 105 miles from London. Henstridge has a mix of housing types, but is predominantly characterised by detached homes. Henstridge is close to nearby places such as Henstridge Ash, Towns End, and Whitchurch.
AdBlue drains around Henstridge and across Somerset
As a rural village, Henstridge shares its vans surrounding places — Towns End, Whitchurch — all the way across BA postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. Fastest of all: give a BA8 0 postcode for our van.
No need to move your car. We drain it where it is — a side street near Henstridge Village Hall, a lay-by on the way to Oak Vale Wood, a drive. Guessing won't help behind St Mary, on a boundary, or somewhere hard to pin down; ring and ask.
Henstridge people: the short version
Tip nothing till you've read the cap. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it where it is, wherever around Somerset: keep the vehicle off and ring 0333 366 0103.