Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Newtown: Why It Occurs
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then put this page aside for now, keep the ignition and engine off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before your motor runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Newtown. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Diesel goes to your motor — but plenty of modern diesels driven about Newtown and Hinton hold a second liquid as well. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust stream and cleans it.
Different tanks, separate fillers. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the arrangement on a lot of cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. The diesel side is topped up at the petrol pump all the time. Seldom filled, AdBlue usually comes out of a bottle, poured by someone who must stop and think what filler to use. It is in that gap that the slip happens.
Newtown: how AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs
It's rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the car, and running out leads to limp mode — so a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Oakfield Way, or outside Sharpness Dockers Club on the way home after work.
Then your car is new. A hire car, a new car 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.
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 tip once it has started. It's a few seconds, be it in Sharpness or bang in the centre of Newtown.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Whether a Newtown forecourt or a drive out in Abwell, take a couple of seconds over these before anything goes in.
- Position misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue ones are often blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally do not.
- The size. On plenty of motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Lift the flap and look for a label — many vehicles show which goes in each filler just there.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler is if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Lydney.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
When the light goes on, wherever around Gloucestershire, follow this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Bridge Road, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park then switch off properly.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the vehicle on.
- Stop once your tank fills or the bottle runs dry; until then, tip slowly using the built-in spout.
- Before you start the vehicle, close the cap and check again that the diesel cap was never came off.
Discover during the second or third stage that AdBlue went into the diesel tank? That's where you stop. Never go on to stage five.
Newtown: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Don't start the engine: that is where the short order of things begins. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch the vehicle on. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is sucked from.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it's the Co-op or the Sea Fuels, ask the staff to help roll the vehicle away from the pump. Your own driveway around Newtown is the place it should stay.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Leave the M5 — under 5 miles out of Newtown — at the next exit. Mileage counts — a short hop across Newtown makes a smaller job than driving under 15 miles to Gloucester — so tell us roughly how far it went.
What takes place when our engineers get there in Newtown
Outside Sharpness Primary School, near St Andrew or on your own driveway: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our engineers come to it. What liquid was put in, the amount, and whether it ran: we ask because those replies decide the work and quote. Nobody heads out before you have had the quote over the phone.
Next: draining, then a full flush of the entire system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. A test is last: before that, fresh diesel is added, and the filter is cleaned or changed if necessary. We don't go until it has been fired up and is running properly.
If your engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Nothing upfront; you settle up that day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. While we travel, have a look at your policy; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Newtown
Newtown is a suburban area in Gloucestershire, situated near the coast and approximately 14 miles from Gloucester. Newtown has a population of around 1237 people and is characterised by semi-detached housing. Newtown is close to nearby places such as Sharpness, Brookend, and Wanswell, and is located at a relatively low elevation of 16 metres above sea level.
AdBlue drains in Newtown and across Gloucestershire
Newtown is a new town, and our vans that cover it also work the towns around it, Brookend and Wanswell among them, across the GL postcode area. Fastest of all: quote a GL13 9 postcode for the van.
Your car does not need to shift. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Penny Grove, a side street near TS Vindicatrix: our technicians drain the car where it stands. Tricky to pin down, like the back of The Final Resting Place? By a county line? Checking beats assuming, so phone.
For Newtown drivers, the short version
Read the cap before you pour. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere around Gloucestershire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway — and so leave it off then ring 0333 366 0103.