AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Lydford-on-Fosse: Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It
Pause here for a moment when your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and ring 0333 366 0103. A drain and a full flush, done right where your vehicle stands around Lydford-on-Fosse, is normally all it needs when found before the motor runs. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the page covers the why it takes place and the ways to prevent it for good.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Many current diesels on the roads round Lydford-on-Fosse and Wheathill carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, and there a spray cleans the fumes.
There is a filler for every tank. Other cars put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot more have both together behind one flap. Diesel gets filled on each forecourt visit, again and again. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less commonly. It is in that gap that the mistake lives.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank take place in Lydford-on-Fosse?
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, your vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Foss Way before work, or in the car park outside Cross Keys Inn on the way home.
Then the car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
No part halts the pour after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It's seconds, whether in West Lydford or right in the centre of Lydford-on-Fosse.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Look at these before pouring, on a forecourt around Lydford-on-Fosse or a drive out in Keinton Mandeville. A few seconds, no more.
- Check the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue ones are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally are not.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside your fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on many vehicles. Check for it.
- Cannot see it beside your diesel inlet? Then look beneath the bonnet or in the boot — the handbook says where.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at Castle Cary, 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 Somerset that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Castle Cary Road, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park and switch off properly.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you have located your filler and read it.
- The diesel cap remains on. When the two share a flap, confirm it's closed before lifting the bottle.
- Finish when your tank fills or the bottle runs dry; before that, pour gently through its own spout.
- Only after that, start your car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Discover at the second or third step that the bottle went in the diesel tank? That is where you stop. Never carry on to step five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Lydford-on-Fosse?
Short list, then. First: the motor remains unstarted. Do not switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is drawn from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it is the Shell or the Esso, ask the attendants to help push your car clear of the petrol pump. If you are on your own drive in Lydford-on-Fosse, leave it where it stands.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your motor has already run. On the M5, under 25 miles from Lydford-on-Fosse, that means the next junction. About how far did it go? Hopping across Lydford-on-Fosse is smaller a job than a run of under 10 miles to Wells, so say.
Our arrival around Lydford-on-Fosse, and what occurs next
By Keinton Mandeville Primary School, close to St Mary or on your own driveway: wherever the car has stopped, our technicians come to it. Which fluid went in, the amount, and if it ran: our technicians ask because the answers set the work and quote. On the phone call itself, you hear our quote — ahead of anything else.
Next: a drain, then a full flush of the entire system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that counts more here than with petrol. Once the filter is cleaned — or replaced, if required — fresh diesel goes in, and then the vehicle gets tested. After that we fire it up and confirm it runs correctly before we leave.
Unstarted cars mostly mean a half-hour visit after the moment we arrive. The equipment is fine on a live forecourt, and quiet enough for a driveway late at night. Your insurer will ask for the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. Before we get there, take a look at your policy; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Lydford-on-Fosse and where it is
Lydford-on-Fosse is a small village in Somerset, situated inland at an elevation of 39 metres, approximately 9 miles from the city of Wells. Lydford-on-Fosse has a population of around 531 people, with a predominance of detached housing. Lydford-on-Fosse is located near several other places, including West Lydford and East Lydford, and is about 111 miles west of London.
AdBlue drains round Lydford-on-Fosse, and Somerset beyond
Over TA postcodes, the vans covering Lydford-on-Fosse — a rural village — work the surrounding spots too, Lydford Fair Place and East Lydford included. Quote a postcode that starts TA11 7, and the van arrives fastest.
No need to shift your car. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Wheathill Golf Club, a side street near St Peter: our engineers drain it where it stands. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Church (Remains of), ring and ask instead of assuming.
The short version for Lydford-on-Fosse people
Before you tip, read the cap. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it where it stands, anywhere across Somerset: switch it off then ring 0333 366 0103.