Kingsway: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then put this page down for now, keep your ignition and motor off, and phone 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, done right where the vehicle sits in Kingsway, is usually what it needs if found before your engine runs. Here in advance? Then the rest covers why it happens and what to prevent it ever happening.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Many newer diesels on the roads about Kingsway and South Twerton carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust gas to clean it.
Different tanks, different fillers. Under one flap, side by side: that is the arrangement on many motors. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in the boot instead. Diesel goes in at every filling station visit, week in, week out. Much less regularly, the AdBlue side gets filled — normally from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. The mistake lives in that gap.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Kingsway: how it occurs
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
Haste follows from the warning. Your car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a driveway off Kingsway, or heading home in the car park outside Trowbridge House.
The old car's cap is where your hand reaches — yet a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That's a second factor: a new car.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the pour once it has started. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Kingsway or out in The Oval.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Whether a Kingsway forecourt or a drive over in Whiteway, take a couple of seconds on these before anything is poured in.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue caps are often blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually do not.
- On many vehicles, size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Check inside your fuel flap: plenty of motors have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by your diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Oldfield Park? Check with the person who drove it last before leaving, rather than once the light goes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
For the day the light appears — anywhere you are across Somerset — a simple routine to use.
- Turn off once parked — flat ground, motor off, and not in a rush by Sladebrook Avenue on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where both sit under a flap, confirm it is shut before lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before starting your car, shut the cap and check again that your diesel cap was never came off.
Discover at the second or third stage that the bottle went in the diesel filler? That is where you stop. Never go on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Kingsway already?
The short order of things, beginning with no starting the motor. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch the vehicle on. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it is the Sainsbury's or the Esso, ask the attendants to help roll the vehicle away from the petrol pump. If you're on your own drive in Kingsway, leave the car where it sits.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Come off the M4 — under 10 miles out of Kingsway — at the first junction. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Kingsway is smaller a job than a run of under 3 miles to Bath, and so tell us.
When our technicians arrive around Kingsway, what happens?
Our van reaches the vehicle wherever it has come to rest — your own driveway, beside Sladebrook Evangelical Church, or by Roundhill Primary School. The replies determine this work and our quote, so we ask what was put in, about how much, and whether it's run. You get that quote by phone, before anybody sets off.
After that: draining, then a full flush of the entire system. Much more than with petrol, it matters here: the crystals form, some metals corrode, and none of that clears away unaided, however long it is left. Testing is last: before that, fresh diesel is added, and the fuel filter is cleaned or replaced if necessary. The motor is fired up next and checked to be sure it runs properly, all before our engineers leave.
With pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where the motor has not run need about half an hour once our engineers are there. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents your insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. While we travel, have a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Kingsway and where it is
Kingsway is a suburban area located near the city of Bath in Somerset, England, with a mix of semi-detached housing and local amenities. Kingsway sits at an elevation of around 95 metres, in a gently sloping area of the South West region. Kingsway is close to several nearby places, including The Oval, Rush Hill, and Southdown, and is situated approximately 1.6 miles from the centre of Bath. Kingsway has a population of around 7359 residents, making it a moderately sized suburban community.
AdBlue drains in Kingsway and across Somerset
Over BA postcodes, the teams that cover Kingsway — a residential suburb — work the surrounding spots too, Southdown and Rush Hill among them. Give a postcode that starts BA2 2, and our van gets there fastest.
The car doesn't need to move. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near St Barnabas, a lay-by on the way to Stirtingale Road Play Space, a drive. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Roundhill Centre, ring and ask instead of assuming.
The short version for Kingsway drivers
Pour no AdBlue until you have read the cap. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it wherever it is, anywhere around Somerset: switch the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103.