Holywell: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Keep your motor and ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. A drain plus a thorough flush, carried out right where the car sits in Holywell, is normally what it takes if found before the motor runs. Reading before the event? Then what follows covers why it happens and how to prevent it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
No single liquid but two: that is what many newer diesels near Holywell and Bournstream carry, with diesel for your motor. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, and there spraying cleans the gas.
Each tank comes with a filler of its own. Other cars keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others place both side by side under one flap. The diesel side is topped up at the pump all the time. Rarely topped up, AdBlue normally comes from a bottle, tipped by someone who must stop and think what filler it needs. The error lives in that gap.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Holywell: how it takes place
Carelessness seldom explains it. Instead is three things lining up at once.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from your car, and running dry means limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Holywell, perhaps outside The Falcon Steakhouse on the way home that evening.
New-to-you cars come second, as well. Hire cars, new cars and company vehicles place their fillers in new places, and habit goes for the cap it used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the tip after it has started. Whether it takes place in Synwell or the middle of Holywell, it is the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A few seconds is all these take — so check them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Bradley or a forecourt in Holywell.
- Read the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally are not.
- On many motors, size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by your diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Cam & Dursley.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
On the day the warning appears — wherever it is around Gloucestershire — a simple routine to use.
- Switch off after you park — level ground, motor stopped, and never in a rush by Holywell Road at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the vehicle, shut the cap and check again that the diesel cap was never came off.
Discover during the second or third step that AdBlue went into the diesel filler? That is where you stop. Never carry on to step five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Holywell?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the motor. Do not switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Topping up with diesel will not weaken it: instead, AdBlue drops to the bottom of your tank, right where the fuel is drawn from.
The staff at Shell, Gulf or another forecourt will normally lend a hand pushing your car away if asked. Your own driveway around Holywell is the place it stays.
Where your engine has been run already, pull over somewhere safe then turn it off. Come off the M5 — under 5 miles out of Holywell — at the first junction. About how far did it go? Hopping across Holywell is less work than a run of under 25 miles to Gloucester, and so say.
What takes place when our technicians turn up in Holywell
Wherever the car has stopped, whether outside The British School, near Coombe Alpacas or on your own drive, the van travels to it. Those replies settle this work and the quote, and so our technicians ask what went in, about how much, and if it's run. During the phone call itself, you are told our quote — before anything else.
The fuel system is then purged thoroughly, once the tank is emptied. More than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: crystals form, some metals corrode, and none of that clears away on its own, however long it sits. Testing is at the end: before that, clean diesel goes in, and the fuel filter is flushed or changed as needed. The motor is fired up next and tested to be sure it runs smoothly, all before we head off.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour once our technicians get there, provided your engine hasn't run — and the pumps we use are safe on a busy forecourt yet quiet at night outside a house. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork your insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Holywell itself
Holywell is a small hamlet situated on the riverside in Gloucestershire, with a relatively low elevation of 77 metres. Holywell lies near the larger settlements of Synwell and Coombe, and is within commuting distance of Gloucester, which is approximately 16 miles away. Holywell has a population of around 1277 people, who mostly reside in detached houses. Holywell is also close to the town of Wotton-under-Edge, and is about 96 miles west of London.
Holywell and Gloucestershire: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout GL postcodes, our teams that cover Holywell — a rural hamlet — work the surrounding locations too, Wotton-under-Edge and Coombe among them. Give a postcode beginning GL12 7, and the van arrives fastest.
No need to shift the vehicle. Wherever it stands — beside St Mary the Virgin, in a lay-by heading to Synwell Playing Field, on a drive — that's where it is emptied. Assuming doesn't help behind Oliver Memorial Chapel, Synwell, close to a border, or anywhere awkward to describe; ring and check.
The short version for Holywell people
Pour nothing till you have read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Keep the vehicle switched off then call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, across Gloucestershire.