AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Kingstone: Why It Occurs and How to Stop It
Stop reading a minute if the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Normally, if your motor hasn't run, it's drained and thoroughly flushed where your car sits in Kingstone. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of modern diesels in Cockyard, as well as Kingstone, run on two fluids; your motor takes just your diesel. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust stream and cleans it.
Each tank has its own filler. Plenty of motors share a single flap for both, whereas some move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is topped up at the petrol pump all the time. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less regularly. The mistake grows in that gap between the two.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Kingstone: how it happens
Carelessness rarely explains it. What does is three things lining up together.
On a driveway off B4348 before work, or in the car park outside The Bull Ring heading home: that's where the hurried top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and once it's empty, limp mode kicks in.
Then the vehicle is strange. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
No part halts the tip once 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 settle it, in the middle of Kingstone or out in Brookfield.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Whether a Kingstone forecourt or a drive out in Hungerstone, take a few seconds on these before any is poured in.
- Position misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually do not.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many cars, the AdBlue one.
- Check inside your fuel flap: plenty of cars have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler is if it is not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Hereford, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
For the day the warning comes on — wherever it is around Herefordshire — a routine to follow.
- Not in a rush on the side of Green Lane, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park then switch off first.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you've located the filler and read it.
- The diesel cap stays on. When the two share a flap, confirm it's shut before lifting the bottle.
- Finish once the tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; until then, pour slowly using its own spout.
- Before starting the car, shut the cap and look a second time that your diesel cap never came off.
Discover during the second or third stage that the bottle went in the wrong filler? That is where you stop. Never go on to step five.
Kingstone: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Do not start the motor: that is where the short order of things begins. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels as soon as the ignition is switched on — so leave it off. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is sucked from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
At a forecourt — Shell, Murco or another — the attendants will usually help push your car away, when you ask. Your own drive around Kingstone is where it should stay.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the motor has already run. Leave the M50 — under 15 miles out of Kingstone — at the first exit. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Kingstone is smaller work than a run of under 10 miles to Hereford, so say.
When our engineers get there in Kingstone, what takes place?
Our technicians come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Kingstone and Thruxton Primary School, close to Saint Michael & All Angels or on your own drive. Our engineers ask what was put in, about how much, and if it has run, because those answers decide this work and the quote. On the call itself, you hear the price — before dispatch.
After that: a drain, then a full flush of the whole system. Much more than with petrol, it counts here: the crystals build up, certain metals corrode, and nothing washes away on its own, no matter how long it sits. The filter flushed or, if needed, swapped; clean diesel in; then a check of the car. We don't leave until it has been fired up and is running smoothly.
With pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where your engine has not run take roughly half an hour after our technicians arrive. The insurer usually wants an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both once this job is done. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Kingstone and where it is
Kingstone is a small village in Herefordshire, situated approximately 6 miles west of Hereford, and is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock. Kingstone sits in a low-lying area of the county, with an elevation of around 95 metres, and is surrounded by nearby places such as Brookfield and Great Brampton. Kingstone is a rural community with a population of around 753 residents, and is located about 121 miles west of London. Kingstone remains a quiet, residential area with a strong sense of community.
AdBlue drains in Kingstone and across Herefordshire
Kingstone is a rural village, and the vans that cover it also work the places near it, Great Brampton and Thruxton among them, across the HR postcode area. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting HR2 9.
The vehicle remains put. Draining takes place on the spot, whether a drive, a road by Kingstone Village Hall, or a lay-by towards Nell's Wood. Guessing won't help at the back of Arkstone Court, close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to pin down; phone and ask.
Kingstone drivers: the short version
Tip nothing till you have read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless, leave the vehicle off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it sits, anywhere in Herefordshire.