How It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Kingsholm
Pause here a minute if the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and call 0333 366 0103. Around Kingsholm, finding it before your engine turns normally means a drain and a full flush on the spot. Here in advance? Then what follows explains how it comes about and what to stop it happening at all.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Many newer diesels on the roads round Kingsholm and Walham carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Every tank comes with a filler of its own. Plenty of vehicles have a single flap for the two, whereas others put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less regularly. The mistake lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank happen around Kingsholm?
It's seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Denmark Road before work, or in the car park at The White Hart on the way home.
The old car's cap is where the hand goes — yet a rental car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That's the second thing: an unfamiliar car.
Nothing halts the pour after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Kingsholm or out in Wotton.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a drive in Pool Meadow or a forecourt around Kingsholm.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Trust the cap, not its position.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Lift the filler flap and check for a label — plenty of vehicles show what goes in which inlet just there.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler sits if it's not by your diesel cap, 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 Gloucester, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Gloucestershire that is.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Nicholls Way.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you've found the filler and read the cap.
- Both under one flap? Then make sure the lid on the diesel filler stays shut before raising the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Never carry on to step five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Kingsholm?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your motor. The fuel pump starts on many diesels as soon as your ignition goes on — and so keep it off. Topping up with diesel won't thin it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the base of the tank, just where the fuel is taken from.
Ask the staff to help push your car clear of the pump if you are at a forecourt — the the nearest petrol station, the Esso or somewhere else. At home around Kingsholm? Then the car stays where it is.
Already started? Pull over when it's safe, then turn off. Come off the M5 — under 3 miles out of Kingsholm — at the first exit. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Kingsholm is less work than a trip of under a mile to Gloucester, and so tell us.
Kingsholm: what happens when we get there
Our technicians come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Kingsholm Church of England Primary School, near Kingsholm Stadium or on your own drive. Which liquid went in, the amount, and if it ran: our technicians ask because the replies decide the work and price. That quote comes over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
Your system is then rinsed thoroughly, once the tank is cleared. More than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: the crystals build up, certain metals corrode, and nothing clears out unaided, no matter how long it sits. Filter flushed or, where it must be, swapped; fresh diesel in; and then a check of your car. Then we fire it up and confirm it runs smoothly before we go.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour once our technicians arrive, as long as your engine has not run — and the pumps we use are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet after dark beside a house. No money upfront; you settle up that day. At the end, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies — so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Kingsholm itself
Kingsholm is a suburban area located near the city of Gloucester in Gloucestershire, England, with Kingsholm sitting at an elevation of 14 metres above sea level. Kingsholm is characterized by its predominantly flat housing stock, with Kingsholm being home to a population of approximately 6158 residents. Kingsholm is situated close to nearby places such as Wotton and The Island, with Kingsholm being just 0.7 miles from Gloucester city centre.
Kingsholm and Gloucestershire: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout GL postcodes, the vans covering Kingsholm — a residential suburb — work the nearby locations too, The Island and Gloucester among them. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting GL1 3.
The car does not need to shift. The drain happens on the spot, whether a driveway, a road near Sherborne Cinema, or a lay-by towards Sebert Street Open Space. Guessing won't help at the back of Oxstalls Tennis Centre, on a border, or somewhere awkward to describe; phone and ask.
Kingsholm people: the short version
Always, the cap; then, the tip. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it where it is, anywhere across Gloucestershire: switch the car off then phone 0333 366 0103.