AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Merrivale: Why It Happens and How to Stop It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and your ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. Caught before your motor runs, it is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Merrivale. The remainder of this page explains why it happens and how to ensure it doesn't — handy if you're reading ahead of time.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
No single fluid but two: that's how many modern diesels near Merrivale and Tudorville carry, with diesel feeding the motor. The exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the gas to fresh it, from a separate tank.
There's a filler on every tank. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is topped up at the pump all the time. Rarely filled, AdBlue normally goes in out of a bottle, tipped by someone who must stop and think which cap to use. That gap is where the error lives.
Merrivale: how AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place
Carelessness rarely explains it. Instead is three things lining up together.
Hurry comes from the warning. Your car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a driveway off Woodland View, or heading home in the car park outside Prince of Wales.
Then the car is strange. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, once started, carries on. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Merrivale or out in Ashfield.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A few seconds is all these take — so check them before you pour anything, on a drive in Three Crosses or a forecourt around Merrivale.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually is not. Read it rather than going by position.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- Look inside your fuel flap: plenty of motors carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by the diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at Ledbury, 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 around Herefordshire that is.
- Turn off after you park — level ground, motor stopped, and never rushed by Blake Avenue at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- Both behind a single flap? So confirm the lid on the diesel side stays shut ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Never go on to step five.
Merrivale: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Brief order, then. Top of it: the motor stays off. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch the car on. Topping up with diesel will not dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the base of your tank, just where fuel is drawn from.
The staff at Morrisons, BP or another forecourt will normally lend a hand to push the vehicle clear if you ask. Your own drive around Merrivale is where it stays.
Already started? Pull over when it is safe, then switch off. Leave the M50 — under 3 miles out of Merrivale — at the next junction. A short hop across Merrivale is a smaller job than a run towards Hereford, under 15 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
When we get there in Merrivale, what takes place?
Anywhere the car came to rest, be it outside St Joseph's RC Primary School and Nursery, near Ross on Wye Bowls and Petanque Club or on your own drive, the van travels to it. Both the work and our price rest on three answers — which fluid, which quantity, and whether it has run — so we ask. You hear that quote on the phone, before anyone heads out.
The system is then purged thoroughly, once your tank is emptied. Much more than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: crystals form, some metals corrode, and none of that clears away unaided, no matter how long it is left. The filter cleaned or, if needed, replaced; fresh diesel in; then a check of your car. Before we leave, our technicians fire it up and make sure that it's running correctly.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour once our technicians get there, provided your engine has not run — and the pumps we use are safe on a live forecourt and quiet after dark beside a house. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents your insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. While we travel, have a look at your policy; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Merrivale, briefly
Merrivale is a suburban area in Herefordshire, situated inland at an elevation of 46 metres, and is located approximately 11.7 miles from Hereford. Merrivale has a population of around 2794 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Merrivale is part of the wider West Midlands region, and is about 108.6 miles from London. Merrivale is near other places such as Ashfield, Ross-on-Wye, and Archenfield.
Merrivale and Herefordshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Over HR postcodes, our vans that cover Merrivale — a residential suburb — work the nearby spots too, Archenfield and Ross-on-Wye included. Quote a postcode that starts HR9 5, and the van gets there fastest.
Moving your car is not necessary. Anywhere it sits — near St Mary the Virgin, in a lay-by en route to The Prospect, on a drive — that is where it gets drained. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of The Plague Cross.
For Merrivale drivers, the short version
Always, the cap; after that, the pour. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere around Herefordshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — and so leave the car off and ring 0333 366 0103.