Millbottom: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and your ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Millbottom. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the page covers the why it happens and the ways to avoid it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Plenty of newer diesels in Harleywood, as well as Millbottom, run on two liquids; your engine takes only your diesel. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, where a spray treats the fumes.
Every tank comes with one filler of its own. Many of motors have a single flap for both, whereas some put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is fuelled at the pump all the time. Far less frequently, the AdBlue side is filled — mostly from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. It's in that gap that the error happens.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank happens in Millbottom
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from the car, and running dry means limp mode — so a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Old Bristol Road, or at Britannia Inn on the way home that evening.
Then the vehicle is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
No part halts the tip after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it takes place in Rockness or the middle of Millbottom, it is the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Worley or a forecourt around Millbottom, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- Many vehicles give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Open the flap and look for a label — many motors mark which goes in each inlet right there.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler is if it is not by the diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Stroud? Ask the person who drove the car last before leaving, not once the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
When the light goes on, anywhere in Gloucestershire, follow this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Horsley Road, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park and switch off first.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, yes, yet it does the trick.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap, and look again — confirm your diesel filler stayed shut throughout. Only then, start the vehicle.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Skip stage five altogether.
Millbottom: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Brief order, then. First: the motor stays unstarted. Do not switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
Ask the staff to help push the vehicle away from the pump if you're on a forecourt — the Shell, the BP or somewhere else. On your own drive around Millbottom? Then the car remains where it is.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Millbottom sits under 10 miles from the M5; on it, take the first junction. A short hop across Millbottom is a smaller job than a run towards Gloucester, under 15 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
When we get there in Millbottom, what occurs?
Our van reaches your car wherever it has come to rest — your own drive, beside Nailsworth Town Hall, or outside Nailsworth Church of England Primary School. Both the work and our price depend on three replies — what fluid, what amount, and if it's run — so our technicians ask. You get that price by phone, before anybody sets off.
Your system is then cleaned thoroughly, once the tank is emptied. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and none of that washes out unaided. Hence it matters more. After the fuel filter is flushed — or replaced, if needed — fresh diesel goes in, and then your car gets tested. Before we leave, our engineers start it and check that it is running properly.
Unstarted cars mostly need a half-hour job from the moment we arrive. The equipment is fine on a live forecourt, and hushed enough for a driveway late at night. No money in advance; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Before we get there, take a look at your insurance documents; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Millbottom itself
Millbottom is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Gloucestershire, with an elevation of 82 metres. Millbottom lies near the city of Gloucester, approximately 12 miles away, and is close to nearby places such as Rockness, Walkleywood, and Nailsworth. Millbottom has a population of around 2025 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing.
AdBlue drains in Millbottom and across Gloucestershire
As a residential suburb, Millbottom has the same vans as surrounding areas — Walkleywood, Nailsworth — all the way across GL postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. Quote a postcode that starts GL6 0, and our van gets there quickest.
Moving your car isn't needed. We drain it where it is — a side street near Christ Church, a lay-by on the way to Mortimer Gardens, a driveway. Tricky to pin down, like the back of Quaker Friends Meeting House? By a border? Checking is better than assuming, and so phone.
The short version for Millbottom drivers
Before you pour, read the cap. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it where it stands, wherever across Gloucestershire: keep the car off and ring 0333 366 0103.