AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Highnam: Why It Occurs and How to Stop It
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then set this page aside for now, keep the ignition and engine off, then phone 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, carried out just where the car sits around Highnam, is usually what it takes if caught before your motor runs. Here in advance? In that case what follows covers how it comes about and how to prevent it ever happening.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Diesel goes to your engine — but plenty of newer diesels driven about Highnam and Rudford hold another fluid too. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust gas to clean it.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, side by side: that's the arrangement on a lot of vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in the boot instead. At the petrol pump, the diesel side is topped up constantly. Much less often, the AdBlue side is filled — normally from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. Mistakes happen in the gap between the two.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank occur in Highnam?
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
Haste follows from the warning. The vehicle tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a driveway off Lassington Lane, or heading home in the car park outside the pub in the village.
The old car's filler is where the hand goes — but a rental car, a new car or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That's the second thing: a strange vehicle.
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 pour after it has started. It's a few seconds, be it out in Highnam Green or bang in the centre of Highnam.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Check these first, at a forecourt around Highnam or a driveway over in Over. Seconds, no more.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally is not. Read it instead of going by position.
- The size. On plenty of cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Check inside the fuel flap: plenty of vehicles carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler sits if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Gloucester, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
Anywhere across Gloucestershire the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Cornflower Way, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park and switch off first.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" out loud while unscrewing it. It sounds daft. It does the trick.
- The two under a single flap? Then confirm the lid on the diesel filler stays closed before lifting the bottle.
- Finish once the tank fills or the bottle is empty; until then, tip slowly using the built-in spout.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Do not go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Highnam already?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your engine. The fuel pump runs on many diesels the moment the ignition is switched on — and so leave it off. Thinning it with more diesel fails, because AdBlue settles to the base rather than mixing — and that's where the fuel is drawn from.
On a forecourt — BP, M. B. Holder & Sons Ltd or another — the attendants will usually help push the vehicle away, when you ask. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway in Highnam.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Highnam sits under 10 miles from the M5; on it, take the next exit. About how far did it go? Hopping across Highnam is less work than a trip of under 3 miles to Gloucester, so say.
When we turn up in Highnam, what occurs?
We come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Highnam CofE Primary Academy, near Highnam Community Centre or on your own drive. The answers determine the work and our price, so our technicians ask what got in, roughly how much, and if it has run. The quote comes over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
Emptying that tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the system. More than with petrol, it matters here: the crystals build up, some metals are attacked, and none of that washes away on its own, no matter how long it sits. Testing comes last: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and the filter is cleaned or replaced if necessary. Before we leave, our engineers fire it up and make sure that it is running correctly.
If the engine hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Nothing in advance; you settle up on the day. At the end, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Highnam, briefly
Highnam is a village in Gloucestershire, situated near the city of Gloucester and surrounded by other small settlements like Highnam Green and Lassington. Highnam sits in a low-lying area of the county, with an elevation of around 30 metres, and is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock. Highnam is located close to the River Severn and is part of the wider Gloucester urban area, while still maintaining its own distinct identity as a separate village.
Highnam and Gloucestershire: AdBlue drains across the area
Highnam is a rural village, and our teams that cover it also work the places around it, Lassington and Maisemore among them, across the GL postcode area. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting GL2 8.
There's no need to move the vehicle. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street close to Holy Innocents, a lay-by on the way to Rodway Hill Golf Club, a drive. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Highnam Court.
In short, for Highnam people
Before you pour, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere across Gloucestershire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same — and so leave the car off then call 0333 366 0103.