Hutton: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Pause reading a minute if the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Hutton. Reading before the event? In that case the rest explains why it comes about and what to stop it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Not one liquid but two: that's how plenty of newer diesels near Hutton and Oldmixon run, with diesel for the engine. Your exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the gas to clean it, from a separate tank.
There's a filler for each tank. Some vehicles put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others place both together behind one flap. Diesel goes in at every forecourt visit, again and again. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less frequently. That gap is where the error lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Hutton: how it happens
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
Hurry follows from the warning. The car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a driveway off Moor Lane, or on the way home in the car park at The Old Inn.
Next, the hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old motor — because a hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
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. Whether it occurs in Lower Canada or the middle of Hutton, it's the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Whether a Hutton forecourt or a driveway over in Bleadon, spend a couple of seconds on these before any goes in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually is not. Read it instead of going by position.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Look for it.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by the diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at Weston Milton, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
For the day the light appears — wherever it is across Somerset — a simple routine to use.
- Turn off once parked — level ground, motor off, and not in a rush beside Main Road on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It seems silly. It works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Leave out step five altogether.
Hutton: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your engine. The fuel pump starts on many diesels as soon as the ignition is switched on — so leave it off. Topping up with diesel will not weaken it: instead, AdBlue drops to the bottom of the tank, right where the fuel is drawn from.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it is the the nearest petrol station or the Asda Express, ask the attendants to help roll the vehicle clear of the pump. If you're on your own drive in Hutton, leave it where it sits.
Where the engine has been run already, stop safely then turn the car off. The next junction is the place to come off if you're on the M5, under 3 miles from Hutton. Mileage counts — a short hop across Hutton is a smaller job than heading under 15 miles towards Wells — so tell us roughly how far it went.
Hutton: what happens when we turn up
Our engineers come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Hutton Church of England Primary School, near Hebron Church or on your own driveway. The replies decide the work and the price, and so our engineers ask what was put in, about how much, and whether it has run. During the call itself, you are told the quote — before dispatch.
After that: a drain, then a thorough flush of the entire 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 matters more here than with petrol. Testing comes last: before that, fresh diesel is added, and the filter is cleaned or changed if necessary. Then our engineers start the car and check it runs correctly before we go.
If the motor hasn't run, the majority of 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 at night. Nothing in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Hutton itself
Hutton is a small village in Somerset, situated near the coast and approximately 16 metres above sea level. Hutton lies within the South West region of England, with the nearby city of Wells located about 14.7 miles away. Hutton is surrounded by other local places, including Lower Canada, Upper Canada, and Locking, and is characterized by its semi-detached housing stock.
AdBlue drains across Somerset, Hutton included
Over BS postcodes, our teams that cover Hutton — a coastal village — work the surrounding spots too, Locking and Upper Canada among them. Quickest of all: give a BS24 9 postcode to our van.
Shifting your car is not necessary. The drain takes place on the spot, whether a drive, a street by Hutton Village Hall, or a layby towards Hay Wood. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you're near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of St Mary.
Hutton drivers: the short version
Tip no AdBlue till you have read the cap. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it wherever it is, wherever around Somerset: keep it off then phone 0333 366 0103.