Why It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Redhill
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and your ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. Around Redhill, catching it before the engine turns normally means a drain and a full flush where it stands. Here in advance? In that case what follows covers why it happens and how to prevent it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Many newer diesels on the roads around Redhill and Hunderton carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, and there a spray treats the fumes.
Each tank has its own filler. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. Much less commonly, the AdBlue side gets filled — normally from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Redhill: how it takes place
It is hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from the car, and letting it run out leads to limp mode — so a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Laysters Avenue, or at Broad Leys on the way home after work.
New-to-you cars come second, as well. Rentals, new vehicles and company cars place their fillers in new places, and habit reaches for the cap used on the old one.
A spouted bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, once begun, carries on. It takes a few seconds, be it in Newton Farm or bang in the heart of Redhill.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Whether a Redhill forecourt or a drive out in Bullinghope, spend a few seconds over these before any goes in.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of motors, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by your diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The previous driver knows. Ask as you collect a hire car or fleet car — at Hereford's car park, say — rather than once the light appears.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Herefordshire that is.
- Pull in on level, engine off, with time to spare — never rushing on the side of Beaufort Avenue.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the vehicle on.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check once more, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Leave out stage five entirely.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Redhill already?
Brief list, then. Top of that: the motor remains unstarted. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch it on. Filling up with diesel won't thin it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of your tank, right where the fuel is drawn from.
Ask the attendants to help push your car away from the petrol pump if you are on a forecourt — the Hinton Service Station, the Tesco or somewhere else. On your own drive around Redhill? So the car remains put.
Already started? Stop once it's safe, then switch off. Leave the M50 — under 15 miles out of Redhill — at the first junction. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Redhill is less work than a trip of under 3 miles to Hereford, so say.
What happens when our engineers turn up in Redhill
Outside Marlbrook Primary School, close to St Martins or on your own drive: wherever your car has stopped, our engineers come to it. Which liquid went in, the quantity, and if it ran: we ask since those answers decide the work and price. You hear that price on the phone, before anybody sets off.
Next: draining, then a full flush of the entire system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. Once your filter has been flushed — or renewed, if needed — clean diesel is added, and finally the car gets tested. Before we leave, our engineers fire it up and make sure that it's running correctly.
Unstarted cars mostly need a half-hour job after arrival. The equipment is fine on a live filling station, and quiet enough for a driveway late at night. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents your insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. While we travel, take a look at your insurance documents; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Redhill itself
Redhill is a suburban area located near the city of Hereford in Herefordshire, England, with a population of around 7006 people. Redhill sits at an elevation of 66 metres, close to the nearby places of Newton Farm, Putson, and Grafton. Redhill is characterized by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock, reflecting the area's residential development. Redhill is situated approximately 1.3 miles from Hereford city centre, making it a convenient location for those working or visiting the city.
Redhill and Herefordshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Redhill is a residential suburb, and our teams that cover it also work the towns near it, Putson and Grafton among them, across the HR postcode area. A postcode starting HR2 7 gets our van to you fastest.
Your car doesn't need to move. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Grafton Wood, a side street near Belmont Library: our technicians drain the vehicle where it sits. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Belmont Community Centre.
The short version for Redhill drivers
Read the cap before you tip. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it wherever it stands, wherever across Herefordshire: keep it off then ring 0333 366 0103.