Why It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Packmores
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then set this page aside for now, keep your ignition and motor off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Around Packmores, catching it before your motor turns normally means a drain and a full flush where it stands. Not happened yet? Below, the page explains the reasons it happens and the how to prevent it altogether.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Diesel feeds the engine — but many newer diesels seen about Packmores and Guys Cliffe carry another liquid too. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Plenty of cars have a single flap for the two, while others move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Filling the diesel side at the pump goes on all the time. Much less regularly, the AdBlue side is filled — normally from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. That gap is where the mistake lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank occur in Packmores?
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
Haste follows from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a driveway off Scar Bank, or heading home in the car park at Woodloes Tavern.
The old car's filler is where your hand reaches — but a rental car, a new car or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That's a second factor: an unfamiliar motor.
No part halts the tip once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Cliff Hill or the heart of Packmores: it takes the same few seconds in both.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Be it a Packmores forecourt or a driveway over in Warwick, spend a couple of seconds on these before anything goes in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally isn't. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- On many cars, size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many motors say there which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler sits if it is not by the 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 at Warwick, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
Anywhere around Warwickshire the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Wathen Road, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park then switch off first.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you've located the filler and read the cap.
- The diesel cap stays on. When both share a flap, make sure it is shut before lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, then check again — confirm your diesel filler stayed closed the whole time. Only then, start your car.
Discover during the second or third stage that the bottle went in the diesel filler? That's where you stop. Step five stays out.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Packmores already?
Don't start your motor: that is where the short order of things starts. Leave the ignition off too, since on many diesels it alone runs your pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is pulled from — so do not top up with diesel to thin it.
The attendants at BP, Tesco or any forecourt will normally lend a hand pushing the car away if asked. Your own drive in Packmores is where it stays.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the motor has already run. Come off the M40 — under 3 miles out of Packmores — at the first exit. A short hop across Packmores is a smaller job than a run towards Coventry, under 10 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
Packmores: what takes place when our engineers arrive
Outside St Mary Immaculate Catholic Primary School, near Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, our technicians come to it. Both the work and our quote depend on three replies — which fluid, what quantity, and if it has run — so we ask. You hear that quote on the phone, before anyone heads out.
Next: a drain, then a thorough flush of the entire system. More than with petrol, it matters here: the crystals form, some metals corrode, and none of that washes out unaided, however long it sits. Once the filter is flushed — or renewed, where required — clean diesel is added, and then the car is tested. Before we leave, our engineers fire it up and confirm that it's running correctly.
Using pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where your motor hasn't run take roughly half an hour after we arrive. No money in advance; you settle up on the day. At the end, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. Misfuelling cover is included in many insurance policies — and so use the wait to check yours.
About Packmores itself
Packmores is a suburban area in Warwickshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 54 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Packmores lies approximately 8.8 miles from Coventry and is close to nearby places such as Cliff Hill, The Cape, and Woodloes Park. Packmores has a population of around 6336 residents and is located within the West Midlands region, about 82.5 miles from London.
AdBlue drains around Packmores, and Warwickshire beyond
Throughout CV postcodes, the vans covering Packmores — a residential suburb — work the nearby places too, Woodloes Park and The Cape among them. Give a postcode beginning CV34 5, and the van arrives quickest.
The vehicle remains put. Draining takes place right there, whether a driveway, a street by Guy of Warwick, or a lay-by on the way to Luttelton Road Community Garden. Assuming won't help at the back of Amikaro, close to a border, or somewhere awkward to pin down; ring and ask.
For Packmores people, the short version
First, the cap; then, the tip. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it wherever it stands, wherever across Warwickshire: keep the car off then ring 0333 366 0103.