Mitcheldean: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and the ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, done just where your car stands around Mitcheldean, is usually all it takes when found before the motor runs. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel feeds the motor — but many current diesels seen round Mitcheldean and Drybrook hold another liquid as well. 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 for every tank. Under one flap, side by side: that is the arrangement on a lot of vehicles. On others, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in your boot instead. At the petrol pump, the diesel side gets filled constantly. Far less commonly, the AdBlue side gets topped up — mostly from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. It is in the gap that the error happens.
Mitcheldean: how AdBlue in the diesel tank happens
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
On a driveway off High Street before work, or in the car park outside White Horse heading home: that is where the hurried top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low the car warns you, and once it is empty, limp mode follows.
Then the vehicle is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Third, the bottle goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in as easily, and once the pour starts, no part halts it. It takes a few seconds, whether out in Brimps Hill or bang in the heart of Mitcheldean.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Shapridge or a forecourt around Mitcheldean, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Trust the cap, not its position.
- On many cars, the size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside the fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on many vehicles. Check for it.
- The handbook shows where it is if your filler isn't next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Lydney? Ask the person who drove the car last before leaving, rather than when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
The day the light goes on, anywhere in Gloucestershire, use this routine.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Stars Pitch.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew it. It seems daft. It does the trick.
- The two behind one flap? Then confirm the cap on the diesel filler is still shut before lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, and look again — confirm your diesel filler remained closed the whole time. Only then, start your car.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Stage five stays out.
Mitcheldean: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Short order, then. First: your motor stays off. Don't 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 your tank, where the fuel is drawn from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
Ask the staff to help roll the car away from the petrol pump if you are at a forecourt — the Gulf, the Power or anywhere else. On your own drive around Mitcheldean? So your car remains put.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Mitcheldean sits under 5 miles from the M50; on it, take the next junction. A short hop across Mitcheldean is a smaller job than a run towards Gloucester, under 15 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
What occurs when our technicians turn up in Mitcheldean
Anywhere the car came to rest, be it by Mitcheldean Endowed Primary School, beside Saint Michael and All Angels or on your own drive, our van travels to it. Which fluid went in, the amount, and whether it ran: we ask since the answers set both work and quote. Nobody sets off until you have had our quote over the phone.
Your system is then flushed thoroughly, once that tank is cleared. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own. Once the filter has been flushed — or renewed, where required — clean diesel is added, and then the car gets tested. Next we fire it up and confirm it runs correctly before leaving.
Using pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your engine hasn't run need about half an hour after our technicians arrive. The insurer will ask for an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours once this job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. While we travel, have a look at your insurance documents; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Mitcheldean, for a moment
Mitcheldean is a small town in Gloucestershire, situated inland at an elevation of around 153 metres, approximately 10 miles west of Gloucester. Mitcheldean lies near several nearby villages, including Brimps Hill, Abenhall, and Plump Hill, and is characterized by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock. Mitcheldean is home to around 2773 residents and is located about 104 miles west of London.
Mitcheldean and Gloucestershire: AdBlue drains across the area
Abenhall and Plump Hill are among the towns near Mitcheldean, a town, that the same vans cover, throughout GL postcodes. A postcode starting GL17 0 gets the van to you fastest.
The car remains where it is. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street close to Forest Gate Church, a lay-by on the way to Harp Grove, a driveway. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Saint Michael.
In short, for Mitcheldean people
Read the cap before you pour. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Leave it off then phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, across Gloucestershire.