Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Pill
Pause reading for a moment when the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, carried out right where the vehicle sits in Pill, is normally all it needs if found before the motor runs. The remainder of this page covers why it takes place and how to ensure it does not — useful if you are reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Plenty of current diesels on the roads about Pill and Shirehampton carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust gas and cleans it.
There's a filler on every tank. Other cars keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty more have both together behind one flap. At the petrol pump, your diesel side is topped up all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less frequently, normally from a bottle, and normally by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. It is in the gap that the error lives.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place around Pill
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from the car, and letting it run out means limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Heywood Terrace, or outside The Star Inn on the way home that evening.
The old car's cap is where your hand reaches — but a rental car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That is a second thing: a strange car.
A spouted bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, once begun, carries on. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Pill or out in Ham Green.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Avonmouth or a forecourt in Pill, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Check the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue ones are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually aren't.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Look for it.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by your diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Shirehampton? Ask the person who drove the vehicle last before you set off, rather than when the light goes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Somerset that is.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Church Place.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Don't go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Pill?
Don't start the motor: that is where the short order of things starts. Don't switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel will not dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the base of your tank, just where the fuel is taken from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it's the Lodway Service Station or the Texaco, ask the attendants to help roll the vehicle clear of the petrol pump. If you're on your own driveway in Pill, leave the car where it stands.
Already started? Stop once it's safe, then switch off. The next exit means the place to leave if you are on the M5, under a mile from Pill. Distance counts — a short hop across Pill is a smaller job than driving under 5 miles to Bristol — so say about how far it went.
Our arrival in Pill, and what occurs next
The van reaches the car anywhere it stopped — your own drive, near Pill Library & Childrens' Centre, or by Crockerne Church of England Primary School. Both the work and our quote rest on three replies — what liquid, what quantity, and if it has run — so we ask. The price is given on the call, before any van leaves.
Your system is then flushed thoroughly, after the tank is cleared. 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 here than with petrol. Testing is last: before that, clean diesel is added, and the filter is cleaned or replaced if necessary. Before we go, we fire it up and check that it is running correctly.
Unstarted vehicles mostly mean a half-hour job after the moment we arrive. The kit is fine on a busy forecourt, and quiet enough for a driveway late at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Pill and where it is
Pill is a coastal village in Somerset, situated near the mouth of the River Avon and close to the city of Bristol. Pill sits at a low elevation of around 20 metres, with views across the Bristol Channel. Pill is characterised by its semi-detached housing and is located near other small communities such as Ham Green and Easton-in-Gordano.
AdBlue drains around Pill, and Somerset beyond
Pill is a coastal village, and our vans that cover it also work the places around it, Lodway and Easton-in-Gordano among them, across the BS postcode area. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting BS20 0.
Shifting your car isn't needed. Wherever it stands — beside Pill Community Centre, in a lay-by en route to Victoria Park, at home — that is where it is drained. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Christ Church, ring and ask instead of assuming.
For Pill drivers, the short version
First, the cap; then, the tip. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere in Somerset, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — so leave the car off and phone 0333 366 0103.