Horsecastle: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and the ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. In Horsecastle, finding it before the motor turns usually means a drain and a full flush on the spot. Not happened yet? Further down, the page covers the reasons it takes place and the ways to prevent it for good.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Many modern diesels in Kenn, like those in Horsecastle, carry on two fluids; the engine gets just your diesel. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, where a spray cleans the gas.
Different tanks, different fillers. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the arrangement on many vehicles. On others, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in your boot instead. At the petrol pump, the diesel side is topped up all the time. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less commonly. Mistakes happen in the gap between them.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank happen in Horsecastle?
It is rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, your vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off B3133 before work, or in the car park at Market Inn on the way home.
Next, the hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old vehicle — since a hire car, a new motor or a company car places the fillers where your last one did not.
A spout-topped bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, after begun, keeps on. Whether it occurs in North End or the middle of Horsecastle, it's the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Be it a Horsecastle forecourt or a drive out in Claverham, spend a couple of seconds over these before any is poured in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally isn't. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- On many vehicles, the size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- Cannot find it beside the diesel inlet? In that case look below the bonnet or inside your boot — 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 Yatton, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
The day the light comes on, anywhere across Somerset, follow this routine.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Arnold's Way.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" aloud while unscrewing it. It sounds silly. It does the trick.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Skip step five entirely.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Horsecastle?
Do not start your engine: that is how the short order of things starts. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels as soon as your ignition is switched on — so keep it off. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
Ask the attendants to help roll your car away from the pump if you are at a forecourt — the Esso, the Murco or somewhere else. If you're on your own driveway around Horsecastle, leave it where it sits.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the motor has already run. The next junction is the place to come off when you're on the M5, under a mile from Horsecastle. A short hop across Horsecastle is a smaller job than a run towards Bristol, under 15 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
What happens when our technicians get there in Horsecastle
Wherever the vehicle came to rest, whether outside Chestnut Park Primary, beside Yatton precinct or at home, the van comes to it. Those answers settle this work and the quote, and so our technicians ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it's run. On the call itself, you hear our price — ahead of anything else.
Draining your tank comes next, then a thorough flush of the fuel system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. The filter cleaned or, if needed, swapped; clean diesel in; and then a test of the vehicle. We do not go until it has been started and is running smoothly.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour once we get there, as long as the motor hasn't run — and the pumps our engineers use are safe on a busy forecourt yet quiet at night beside a house. 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; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Horsecastle and where it is
Horsecastle is a small suburban area in Somerset, situated near the coast and approximately 10 miles from Bristol. Horsecastle has a population of around 2253 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Horsecastle sits at a low elevation of around 7 metres above sea level, close to nearby places such as North End and Yatton. Horsecastle is also within commuting distance of major cities, being around 117 miles from London.
AdBlue drains in Horsecastle and across Somerset
Yatton and Kingston Seymour are among the places around Horsecastle, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, throughout BS postcodes. A postcode starting BS49 4 gets the van to you fastest.
The vehicle remains where it is. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Wemberham Little Wood, a side street near Model aircraft airfield: our engineers drain the car where it stands. Guessing doesn't help at the back of Yatton Parish Council office, on a border, or somewhere hard to describe; ring and ask.
For Horsecastle motorists, the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Leave the car switched off then ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, throughout Somerset.