AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Leominster: Why It Occurs and How to Stop It
Keep your engine and ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. A drain and a thorough flush, carried out right where the vehicle stands around Leominster, is usually what it takes when found before the motor runs. Reading before the event? Then what follows explains why it comes about and how to stop it happening at all.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Diesel goes to the engine — yet plenty of newer diesels driven round Leominster and Eaton carry another fluid too. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, and there spraying cleans the gas.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the layout on many vehicles. On others, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in the boot instead. The diesel side is fuelled at the petrol pump all the time. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less frequently. The mistake grows in that gap between the two.
Leominster: how AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the vehicle, and running out leads to limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, maybe before work off High Street, or at The Press Room on the way home after work.
Then, the hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old motor — because a hire car, a new motor or a company car places the fillers where your last one didn't.
No part stops 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. It's a few seconds, be it out in The Marsh or bang in the centre of Leominster.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Check these before pouring, on a forecourt around Leominster or a driveway out in Barons Cross. Seconds, no more.
- Position misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue caps are often blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally do not.
- On plenty of vehicles, size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Check for it.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by the diesel cap, it's in your 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 the nearest station, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Herefordshire that is.
- Switch off once parked — flat ground, engine stopped, and not in a rush beside School Lane on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the vehicle, close the cap and check again that your diesel cap never came off.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Never go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Leominster?
Short list, then. Top of it: the engine stays off. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch it on. Diluting it with more diesel fails, because AdBlue sinks to the bottom instead of mixing — and that is where your fuel is drawn from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it's the Leominster Service Station or the Shell, ask the attendants to help push the vehicle clear of the petrol pump. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive around Leominster.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. The next junction is the place to come off when you are on the M50, under 25 miles from Leominster. About how far did it go? Hopping across Leominster is less a job than a run of under 15 miles towards Hereford, so tell us.
When our technicians arrive in Leominster, what takes place?
Outside Leominster Primary School, close to John Scarlett Davis or on your own driveway: wherever the car has stopped, our technicians come to it. Both the work and the price depend on three answers — what fluid, what quantity, and whether it has run — so our engineers ask. The quote is given over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
The system is then flushed thoroughly, once that tank is emptied. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own. Filter flushed or, where it must be, swapped; fresh diesel in; and then a check of your car. Your engine is started next and tested to make sure it runs smoothly, all before we go.
Unrun cars mostly need a half-hour visit from the moment we arrive. The equipment is safe on a busy filling station, and quiet enough for a driveway after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Leominster and where it is
Leominster is a riverside town in northwest Herefordshire, situated on the River Lugg at an elevation of around 80 metres. Leominster lies approximately 11 miles north of Hereford and 122 miles west of London, with nearby neighbourhoods including The Marsh, Newlands, and Ryelands. Leominster has a population of around 9865 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing.
Leominster and Herefordshire: AdBlue drains across the area
As a riverside town, Leominster has the same vans as surrounding areas — Newlands, Ryelands — all the way through HR postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. A postcode starting HR6 8 gets the van to you fastest.
There's no need to shift the car. Anywhere it sits — near Leominster Library, in a layby heading to The Grange, at home — that's where it gets emptied. Assuming won't help at the back of Grange Court, on a boundary, or somewhere awkward to pin down; ring and check.
For Leominster motorists, the short version
Tip nothing till you have read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere across Herefordshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — and so leave the car off and ring 0333 366 0103.