Nailbridge: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Stop reading a minute when your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then ring 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, carried out right where the car sits in Nailbridge, is usually all it takes when caught before the motor runs. Not happened yet? Further down, the page explains the reasons it happens and the ways to prevent it altogether.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Diesel goes to the motor — yet plenty of newer diesels driven around Nailbridge and Ruardean Hill carry another liquid as well. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, and there spraying cleans the fumes.
Each tank comes with a filler of its own. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the arrangement on many motors. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in your boot instead. Diesel gets filled at each forecourt call-out, again and again. Much less frequently, the AdBlue side is filled — normally from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. The error lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs in Nailbridge
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, your vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Morse Road before work, or in the car park at Hearts of Oak on the way home.
Unfamiliar cars are next, as well. Hire cars, new cars and company motors put their fillers in new places, and the hand reaches for the cap it used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the tip once it has started. Whether it occurs in Harrow Hill or the middle of Nailbridge, it is the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Look at these before pouring, at a forecourt around Nailbridge or a drive out in Ruardean Woodside. Seconds, that's all.
- Check the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally aren't.
- On plenty of motors, size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler sits if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Lydney, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Gloucestershire that is.
- Turn off after you park — flat ground, engine off, and not in a rush beside Steam Mills Road on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" aloud as unscrewing it. It sounds silly. 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.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Find during the second or third step that AdBlue went into the wrong filler? That's where you stop. Never go on to stage five.
Nailbridge: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Brief order, then. Top of that: the engine remains off. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch it on. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
Ask the attendants to help push your car clear of the petrol pump if you are on a forecourt — the Murco, the Power or anywhere else. Your own driveway in Nailbridge is where it stays.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Nailbridge sits under 10 miles from the M50; there, use the next exit. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Gloucester, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Nailbridge.
What takes place when our technicians get there in Nailbridge
By Steam Mills Primary School, near Holy Trinity or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, our technicians come to it. Our technicians ask what got in, about how much, and if it's run, because the replies settle this work and our quote. During the call itself, you hear the quote — before anything else.
Draining your tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of your system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. A test is last: before that, clean diesel is added, and the filter is cleaned or replaced if necessary. Your engine is started next and checked to be sure it runs properly, all before our engineers go.
Using pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your motor hasn't run take about half an hour after our engineers are there. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Nailbridge and where it is
Nailbridge is a small suburban area in Gloucestershire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 179 metres. Nailbridge lies near the communities of Harrow Hill, Steam Mills, and Drybrook, and is approximately 11.6 miles from Gloucester. Nailbridge has a population of around 690 people, predominantly living in detached housing. Nailbridge is also relatively close to the national motorway network, being about 104.9 miles west of London.
AdBlue drains about Nailbridge, and Gloucestershire beyond
As a residential suburb, Nailbridge shares its vans surrounding areas — Steam Mills, Drybrook — all the way across GL postcodes and the wider area around them. Give a postcode that starts GL17 9, and our van gets there quickest.
The vehicle does not need to move. Wherever it sits — beside Ruardean Hill Baptist Church, in a lay-by heading to Haywood Plantation, on a drive — that is where it is cleared. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Memorial Hall (Social Club), ring and ask rather than guessing.
Nailbridge drivers: the short version
Tip no AdBlue until you've read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Leave the car off then ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, across Gloucestershire.