AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Oldland: Why It Occurs and How to Stop It
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case set this page aside for now, keep the ignition and engine off, and call 0333 366 0103. In Oldland, finding it before your motor turns usually leaves a drain and a full flush on the spot. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of current diesels on the roads round Oldland and Warmley Tower carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. Your exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the fumes to clean it, from its own tank.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Some motors keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty more have both together behind one flap. The diesel side is fuelled at the pump all the time. Much less frequently, the AdBlue side gets filled — mostly from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. The mistake lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs around Oldland
Carelessness seldom causes it. Instead is three things coming up at once.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out completely, the vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Cook Close before work, or in the car park outside The Dolphin Inn on the way home.
Then your car is strange. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spouted bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, after started, carries on. It's seconds, be it in Oldland Common or bang in the centre of Oldland.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A couple of seconds is all these take — so check them before you pour anything, on a drive in Cadbury Heath or a forecourt around Oldland.
- Read the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue ones are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally aren't.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- In the 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 previous driver knows. Ask when you collect a hire car or fleet car — from Keynsham's car park, say — not once the light appears.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
The day the light comes on, anywhere across Gloucestershire, follow this routine.
- Switch off once parked — flat ground, engine stopped, and never rushed by North Street on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" aloud as unscrewing it. It seems 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.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check again, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Stage five stays out.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Oldland?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the motor. Keep your ignition off as well, since on many diesels it alone runs the fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it is the the nearest petrol station or the BP, ask the attendants to help push the car clear of the pump. Your own driveway in Oldland is the place it should stay.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your engine has already run. On the M4, under 5 miles from Oldland, that means the next exit. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Bristol, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Oldland.
What occurs when our technicians turn up in Oldland
Our van comes to the car anywhere it stopped — your own drive, beside Sir Bernard Lovell School Auditorum, or outside Redfield Edge Primary School. Which fluid went in, the amount, and if it ran: we ask since those replies decide the work and price. That quote comes on the call, before any van leaves.
Next: draining, then a full flush of the whole system. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and neither washes away by itself. That is why it matters more. The filter flushed or, where needed, replaced; fresh diesel in; and then a test of the car. We do not leave until it has been fired up and is running properly.
If the motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Nothing upfront; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. It's worth looking at your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Oldland
Oldland is a village situated on the riverside in Gloucestershire, with Oldland being close to the city of Bristol, which is approximately 5.7 miles away. Oldland has a population of around 3320 people and Oldland is characterised by its semi-detached housing. Oldland sits at an elevation of 49 metres, in a location that is around 100.9 miles west of London.
AdBlue drains around Oldland, and Gloucestershire beyond
Over BS postcodes, our vans that cover Oldland — a village — work the nearby locations too, North Common and Cowhorn Hill included. Quote a postcode beginning BS30 8, and our van arrives fastest.
The vehicle does not need to shift. Anywhere it sits — near Sir Bernard Lovell Sports Centre, in a layby heading to Sir Bernard Lovell School Playing Field, at home — that is where it gets emptied. Assuming doesn't help at the back of Unity Oldland Methodist Church, close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe; ring and check.
The short version for Oldland people
Before you tip, read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Leave the car switched off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, throughout Gloucestershire.