Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Middleleaze: Why It Happens
Leave the motor and ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. In Middleleaze, catching it before the engine turns normally means a drain and a full flush on the spot. Reading in advance? Then the rest covers why it comes about and how to stop it happening at all.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Many modern diesels on the roads about Middleleaze and Common Platt carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. Your exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the fumes to fresh them, from its own tank.
Different tanks, separate fillers. Other motors put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others have both together behind one flap. The diesel side is filled at the petrol pump all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less regularly, normally from a bottle, and normally by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake grows in that gap between them.
Middleleaze: how AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place
Carelessness seldom causes it. Instead is three things coming up at once.
Haste follows from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a drive off Tewkesbury Way, or heading home in the car park at The Nine Elms.
Then, the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old vehicle — since a rental car, a new motor or a company car places the fillers where your last one did not.
Nothing stops 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 Middleleaze or out in The Prinnels.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Eastleaze or a forecourt in Middleleaze, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally is not. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on many vehicles. Check for it.
- Cannot see it beside your diesel inlet? Then check below the bonnet or in the boot — the handbook will say where.
- Whoever had it before knows. Check when you collect a hire car or fleet car — from Swindon's car park, perhaps — not once the warning comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Wiltshire that is.
- Stop somewhere level, engine off, with time to spare — not rushing on the side of Middleleaze Drive.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap works — once you've located your filler and read the cap.
- The diesel cap remains on. When the two sit under a flap, confirm it is closed before the bottle comes up.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it's 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.
Find at stage two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? Then stop just there. Leave out step five altogether.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Middleleaze?
Brief list, then. First: your engine stays unstarted. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch the vehicle on. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is drawn from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it is the Shell or the Asda, ask the staff to help roll your car away from the petrol pump. On your own drive in Middleleaze? Then your car stays where it is.
Already started? Stop once it's safe, then switch off. Middleleaze lies under 3 miles from the M4; on it, use the next junction. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Middleleaze is smaller a job than a trip of under 50 miles to Bath, so tell us.
Our arrival in Middleleaze, and what takes place next
Anywhere the car came to rest, be it outside Tregoze Primary School, beside St Mary's Church or at home, the van travels to it. Both the work and our quote rest on three replies — which liquid, which quantity, and whether it has run — so our engineers ask. During the phone call itself, you hear our price — ahead of dispatch.
After that: draining, then a full flush of the whole system. More than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: the crystals build up, certain metals corrode, and none of it washes out on its own, however long it is left. Testing comes last: before that, fresh diesel is added, and the fuel filter is cleaned or changed as needed. Then our engineers fire it up and check it runs correctly before leaving.
If the engine hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — so use the wait to look at yours.
About Middleleaze, briefly
Middleleaze is a suburban area in Wiltshire, situated near several lakes and surrounded by other residential neighbourhoods such as The Prinnels and Ramleaze. Middleleaze sits at an elevation of 99 metres, with a mix of housing types but predominantly detached homes. Middleleaze is located near the town of Lydiard Tregoze and is within commuting distance of the city of Bath. Middleleaze has a population of approximately 3916 residents.
AdBlue drains across Wiltshire, Middleleaze included
Middleleaze is a residential suburb, and the teams that cover it also work the towns around it, Ramleaze and Lydiard Tregoze among them, across the SN postcode area. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting SN5 5.
There's no need to shift your car. Draining happens on the spot, be it a driveway, a road near Lydiard House, or a lay-by towards Crow Brake. Awkward to explain, like the back of Holy Trinity? Close to a county line? Asking beats guessing, so phone.
Middleleaze people: the short version
Read the cap before you tip. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Leave it switched off then call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, across Wiltshire.