Ledbury: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case set this page down a moment, leave your ignition and engine off, then phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it's generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Ledbury. Here before the event? In that case the rest explains why it happens and how to prevent it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel feeds your engine — yet many newer diesels driven around Ledbury and Beggars Ash carry another liquid too. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, where spraying cleans the fumes.
There's a filler for each tank. Other cars keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others have both together behind one flap. Diesel goes in on every filling station visit, again and again. The AdBlue side is topped up far less regularly, normally from a bottle, and normally by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. It is in that gap that the error happens.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs in Ledbury
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
Haste follows from the warning. The vehicle tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a driveway off High Street, or heading home in the car park outside The Royal Oak.
Then your car is strange. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Lastly, the spout goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in just as readily, and once the pour begins, no part halts it. It's a few seconds, whether out in Old Wharf or bang in the centre of Ledbury.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Whether a Ledbury forecourt or a driveway out in Eastnor, spend a couple of seconds on these before anything goes in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually isn't. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- On many cars, the size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by your diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Ask as you collect a hire car or fleet car — from the nearest station's car park, perhaps — not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
For the day the light appears — wherever it is around Herefordshire — a routine to use.
- Not in a rush on the side of Worcester Road, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park and switch off properly.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, perhaps, yet it works.
- Both under a single flap? Then make sure the cap on your diesel filler is still shut before raising the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, then look once more — making sure the diesel cap remained closed throughout. After that, start your car.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Never carry on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Ledbury?
The short order of things, beginning with no starting the motor. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch it on. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is sucked from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
The staff at Texaco, Gulf or any forecourt will normally help to push the car clear if asked. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive around Ledbury.
Where the motor has been run by now, pull over somewhere safe then switch the car off. The next junction is where to leave if you are on the M50, under 5 miles from Ledbury. A short hop across Ledbury is a smaller job than a run towards Hereford, under 15 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
Our arrival around Ledbury, and what occurs next
Our van comes to the vehicle anywhere it stopped — your own driveway, near Saint Katherine's Barn, or outside Ledbury Primary School. Which fluid got in, the amount, and if it ran: our engineers ask since the replies decide both work and price. That price comes over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
Draining the tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the fuel 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 that counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. A test comes last: before that, clean diesel is added, and the fuel filter is cleaned or changed if necessary. We do not leave until it has been fired up and is running properly.
Unrun cars usually need a half-hour job from arrival. The equipment is fine on a live forecourt, and quiet enough for a residential street after dark. Your insurer usually wants the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. Misfuelling cover is included in many insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Ledbury itself
Ledbury is a town in Herefordshire, situated in the west of England, approximately 104.7 miles west of London. Ledbury sits at an elevation of 79 metres, near the River Leadon, and is surrounded by nearby places such as Old Wharf, Bradlow, and Parkway. Ledbury has a population of around 9107 people, predominantly living in detached housing. Ledbury is located close to the city of Hereford, about 12.6 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Herefordshire, Ledbury included
Ledbury is a town, and our vans that cover it also work the places near it, Bradlow and Parkway among them, across the HR postcode area. Quote a postcode beginning HR8 1, and our van gets there quickest.
There's no need to move the vehicle. Anywhere it sits — near Saint Katherine's Hall, on a layby en route to The Walled Garden, at home — that's where it is drained. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Ledbury Library, ring and ask instead of assuming.
In short, for Ledbury drivers
Before you tip, read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Keep it switched off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, across Herefordshire.