Hudswell: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Keep your motor and ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Normally, when the engine hasn't run, it's drained and thoroughly rinsed where the vehicle is in Hudswell. Not happened yet? Below, the page explains the reasons it takes place and the how to prevent it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Plenty of newer diesels in Pickwick, like those in Hudswell, carry on two fluids; your motor takes only your diesel. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Separate tanks, different fillers. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is fuelled at the pump all the time. Far less frequently, the AdBlue side is topped up — normally from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. It's in that gap that the slip lives.
Hudswell: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
It is hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a driveway off Hudswell Lane before work, or in the car park at Hare & Hounds on the way home: that's where the hurried top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low your car warns you, and if it's empty, limp mode follows.
Then your car is strange. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Lastly, the bottle goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in just as easily, and after the pour starts, nothing stops it. Greenhill or the heart of Hudswell: it is the same few seconds in both.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Neston or a forecourt in Hudswell, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Check the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally aren't.
- Plenty of motors give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Look inside your fuel flap: many cars carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- Cannot find it next to the diesel inlet? In that case look beneath the bonnet or inside your boot — the owner's manual says where.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Melksham, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
The day the light goes on, wherever across Wiltshire, use this routine.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Paddock Lane.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, yes, but it does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where both sit under a flap, make sure it is shut before lifting the bottle.
- Stop once your tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; until then, tip gently using the own spout.
- Only then, start the vehicle: close the cap, check again, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Step five is off limits.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Hudswell?
Do not start your motor: that is how the short order of things begins. Don't switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is drawn from.
Ask the staff to help roll the vehicle away from the petrol pump if you are on a forecourt — the Texaco, the Shell or somewhere else. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway in Hudswell.
Already started? Stop when it's sensible, then turn off. Leave the M4 — under 10 miles out of Hudswell — at the next junction. Mileage matters — a short hop across Hudswell is a smaller job than heading under 10 miles towards Bath — so tell us about how far it went.
Our arrival in Hudswell, and what takes place next
Anywhere your car has stopped, whether outside Neston Primary School, near MOD Corsham Gymnasium or on your own drive, our van travels to it. We ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether it has run, because the replies settle the work and the price. You get that quote by phone, before anybody heads out.
Next: a drain, then a full flush of the whole system. 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 the flush counts more here than with petrol. A test is at the end: before that, fresh diesel is added, and the fuel filter is flushed or changed as needed. The motor is started next and tested to be sure it runs correctly, all before our technicians head off.
With pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the engine has not run need about half an hour after our technicians are there. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents an insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. It's worth checking your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Hudswell itself
Hudswell is a small hamlet in Wiltshire, situated inland at an elevation of 113 metres, approximately 7 miles from the city of Bath. Hudswell lies near other local places such as Greenhill, Westwells, and Rudloe, and is characterized by its predominantly detached housing. Hudswell is a relatively small community, with a population of around 953 residents. Hudswell is located in the South West region of England, about 89 miles from London.
Hudswell and Wiltshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Being a rural hamlet, Hudswell has the same vans as surrounding places — Westwells, Rudloe — all the way through SN postcodes and the wider area around them. Fastest of all: give a SN13 9 postcode for the van.
Shifting your car is not needed. The drain takes place on the spot, be it a drive, a street by Rudloe Community Centre, or a lay-by towards Paddock Wood. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of St Patrick's Catholic Church.
In short, for Hudswell motorists
Always, the cap; then, the tip. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave the vehicle off then call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it waits, anywhere across Wiltshire.