How It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in New Town
Pause reading for a moment when the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then ring 0333 366 0103. In New Town, catching it before the motor runs normally leaves a drain and a thorough flush where it stands. Nothing happened yet? Below, the page covers the reasons it takes place and the how to avoid it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel feeds your motor — but plenty of current diesels driven around New Town and Little Lyde carry another fluid as well. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Under one flap, side by side: that's the arrangement on a lot of cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in your boot instead. The diesel side is fuelled at the pump all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less frequently, usually from a bottle, and usually by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the error lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs around New Town
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 completely, your vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off St Michael's Road before work, or in the car park at Pen Mill Hotel on the way home.
Then your car is new. 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.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the pour once it has started. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of New Town or out in Goar Knap.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Look at these first, at a forecourt around New Town or a driveway over in Yeovil. A few seconds, that's all.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Trust the cap, not its position.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Open the filler flap and check for a label — many cars show what goes in each inlet just there.
- Can't see it beside your diesel inlet? Then look beneath the bonnet or in your boot — the owner's manual will say where.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Yeovil Pen Mill.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
The day the light comes on, anywhere around Somerset, 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 Glenville Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" out loud while unscrewing it. It sounds silly. It does the trick.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Finish once your tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; until then, tip slowly through its own spout.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Find at stage two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? Then stop right there. Step five is off limits.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around New Town?
Short order, then. First: your engine remains off. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch the vehicle on. Diluting it with more diesel fails, since AdBlue settles to the base rather than mixing — and that is where your fuel is pulled from.
The staff at Esso, Texaco or another forecourt will normally help to push the vehicle clear if asked. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive around New Town.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the motor has already run. Come off the M5 — under 25 miles out of New Town — at the next junction. Distance matters — a quick hop across New Town is a smaller job than driving under 25 miles towards Wells — so tell us roughly how far it went.
When we turn up around New Town, what takes place?
We come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Pen Mill Infant and Nursery Academy, close to St Michael & All Angels or on your own drive. We ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it has run, because the answers decide the work and our quote. You get that price by phone, before anybody sets off.
Emptying that tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the fuel system. Much more than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: the crystals form, certain metals are attacked, and nothing clears away on its own, no matter how long it sits. Filter cleaned or, if it must be, replaced; fresh diesel in; and then a test of your car. Your engine is started next and checked to make sure it runs correctly, all before our engineers head off.
If the motor has not run, the majority of 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. Your insurer will ask for the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both once this job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. It's worth looking at your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About New Town, for a moment
New Town is a suburban area in Somerset, situated on the riverside with an elevation of 59 metres. New Town lies near several other local places, including Goar Knap, Pen Mill, and Crofton Park, and is around 18 miles from the city of Wells. New Town has a population of approximately 8756 residents, predominantly living in terraced housing. New Town is also relatively distant from London, at around 114.6 miles away.
AdBlue drains in New Town and across Somerset
Over BA postcodes, the vans covering New Town — a residential suburb — work the surrounding places too, Crofton Park and Pen Mill included. Give a postcode that starts BA21 4, and our van arrives fastest.
Shifting the vehicle isn't necessary. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Wyndham Hill, a side street near Yeovil Islamic Centre: our technicians drain the vehicle where it stands. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you are near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Cineworld.
New Town people: the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Leave the car off then phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, throughout Somerset.