How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Lydney
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and the ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Lydney. The rest of this page explains why it occurs and how to ensure it doesn't — useful if you're reading ahead of time.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
No single liquid but two: that is how many newer diesels near Lydney and Highfield carry, with diesel feeding your motor. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There's a filler on every tank. Under one flap, side by side: that is the arrangement on a lot of vehicles. On others, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in the boot instead. Diesel goes in on each filling station visit, again and again. The AdBlue side is topped up far less commonly, normally from a bottle, and usually by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Lydney: how it occurs
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from the vehicle, and running out leads to limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Newerne Street, or outside The Swan Hotel on the way home after work.
The old car's cap is where the hand goes — yet a rental car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That is a second factor: an unfamiliar motor.
No part halts the pour once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Lydney or out in Newerne.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Be it a Lydney forecourt or a drive over in Allaston, take a couple of seconds over these before anything is poured in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually is not. Read it rather than going by position.
- On plenty of motors, size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside the fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Check for it.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler is if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at the nearest station? Check with the person who drove it last before you set off, rather than when the light goes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
The day the light comes on, wherever around Gloucestershire, follow this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Forest Road, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park then switch off first.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you have located the filler and read the cap.
- The two under one flap? So make sure the cap on the diesel filler stays shut ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Leave out step five entirely.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Lydney already?
Don't start your motor: that is how the short order of things begins. Do not switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel will not dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the base of the tank, just where fuel is drawn from.
The attendants at Tesco, Co-op or any forecourt will usually lend a hand pushing the vehicle clear when asked. If you are on your own drive around Lydney, leave it where it sits.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your engine has already run. Lydney sits under 10 miles from the M5; there, take the first junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Gloucester, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Lydney.
Lydney: what happens when our technicians turn up
Our engineers come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Lydney Church of England Community School, near 3 Hill Street or on your own drive. The replies determine this work and our quote, so our technicians ask what was put in, about how much, and if it's run. You get that quote by phone, before anyone heads out.
Then your tank is drained and the system rinsed thoroughly. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and none of that clears away by itself. Hence it matters more. A test comes last: before that, clean diesel is added, and your filter is flushed or changed if necessary. Next our engineers fire it up and confirm it runs properly before we leave.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour after our engineers arrive, provided your engine hasn't run — and the pumps we use are fine on a live forecourt and quiet at night beside a house. No money in advance; you settle up on the day. At the end, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. Before we get there, have a look at your policy; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Lydney
Lydney is a coastal town in Gloucestershire, situated near the Severn Estuary at an elevation of around 14 metres. Lydney lies approximately 15 miles from Gloucester and 104 miles from London, with nearby areas including Newerne, Tutnalls, and Primrose Hill. Lydney has a population of around 9700 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Lydney is part of the wider South West region of England, with its coastal setting influencing its character and development.
AdBlue drains in Lydney and across Gloucestershire
Being a coastal town, Lydney shares its vans surrounding places — Tutnalls, Primrose Hill — all the way through GL postcodes and the surrounding area around them. Give a postcode beginning GL15 5, and the van gets there quickest.
No need to move the vehicle. Draining takes place on the spot, be it a driveway, a road near Lydney Library, or a layby towards Bathurst Park. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Studio 16, ring and ask instead of assuming.
For Lydney people, the short version
Pour nothing until you've read the cap. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it wherever it is, anywhere across Gloucestershire: keep the car off then phone 0333 366 0103.