AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Norman Hill: Why It Happens and How to Prevent It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and the ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. Normally, when your motor hasn't run, it is emptied and fully flushed where your vehicle sits in Norman Hill. The rest of this page explains why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't — handy if you are reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Diesel goes to the engine — but many current diesels seen about Norman Hill and Cam carry 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.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Other vehicles keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot more place both together behind one flap. Diesel goes in at each forecourt visit, week in, week out. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less frequently, normally from a bottle, and normally by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the error lives.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank take place around Norman Hill?
It's rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a driveway off Marlstone Road before work, or in the car park outside The Railway on the way home: that's where the rushed top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low the vehicle tells you, and if it's gone, limp mode kicks in.
Then the vehicle is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Third, the bottle goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in just as readily, and once the tip starts, no part stops it. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Norman Hill or out in Summerhayes.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Check these first, on a forecourt around Norman Hill or a drive out in Upper Cam. Seconds, that's all.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally is not. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many motors say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by the diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- 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 at Cam & Dursley.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
On the day the light appears — wherever it is in Gloucestershire — a simple routine to use.
- Turn off after you park — flat ground, engine stopped, and never rushed by Woodview Road on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" aloud as unscrewing it. It sounds daft. It does the trick.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Shut the cap, then check again — making sure the diesel cap stayed closed the whole time. After that, start the vehicle.
Find at stage two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? So stop right there. Never go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Norman Hill already?
Don't start the engine: that's where the short order of things starts. Keep the ignition off as well, because on plenty of diesels switching it on alone starts the fuel pump. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
At a forecourt — Texaco, Shell or another — the staff will usually help roll the vehicle clear, when you ask. If you're on your own drive around Norman Hill, leave the car where it sits.
Already started? Pull over once it is safe, then turn off. The next exit means the place to come off if you are on the M5, under 3 miles from Norman Hill. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Gloucester, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Norman Hill.
When our engineers arrive around Norman Hill, what happens?
Wherever your car has stopped, be it outside Cam Everlands Primary School, beside Kingdom Hall or on your own drive, our van comes to it. Both the work and the price depend on three replies — which liquid, what quantity, and if it has run — so our technicians ask. On the phone call itself, you are told the price — before dispatch.
Draining that tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the 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 counts more here than with petrol. A test is last: before that, fresh diesel is added, and the fuel filter is flushed or replaced as needed. Before we go, our technicians start the car and check that it is running properly.
Using pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your engine has not run take roughly half an hour once our technicians arrive. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents your insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — so use the wait to look at yours.
About Norman Hill, for a moment
Norman Hill is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Gloucestershire, with an elevation of 64 metres. Norman Hill lies near several other local places, including Summerhayes, Everlands, and Sandpits, and is approximately 12.7 miles from Gloucester. Norman Hill has a population of around 5081 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Norman Hill is also relatively close to the national motorway network, being about 96.8 miles west of London.
AdBlue drains about Norman Hill, and Gloucestershire beyond
Throughout GL postcodes, the vans covering Norman Hill — a residential suburb — work the nearby spots too, Sandpits and Everlands among them. Quote a postcode that starts GL11 5, and the van arrives quickest.
The vehicle stays put. Anywhere it sits — near Cam War Memorial, in a layby heading to Norman Hill Playing Field, at home — that's where it gets cleared. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Kingshill House Creative Centre, ring and ask rather than guessing.
The short version for Norman Hill drivers
Read the cap before you tip. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere in Gloucestershire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless — and so leave the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103.