Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Repton: Why It Happens
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and the ignition off and call 0333 366 0103. Normally, if your motor has not run, it is emptied and fully cleaned where the car sits in Repton. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it does not.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Many newer diesels on the roads about Repton and Newton Solney carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has a filler of its own. Many of vehicles share a single flap for both, whereas some put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in on each filling station call-out, week in, week out. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less frequently. Mistakes happen in that gap between the two.
Repton: how AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the car drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Boot Hill before work, or in the car park outside The Red Lion on the way home.
Then, your hand goes for the cap it knew on the old car — because a hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
Nothing halts the tip once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It takes seconds, whether out in Cokhay Green or right in the centre of Repton.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Be it a Repton forecourt or a drive out in Twyford, take a few seconds on these before any goes in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally isn't. Read it rather than going by position.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- Can't find it next to your diesel filler? Then look beneath the bonnet or in your boot — the handbook says where.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Willington? Check with whoever drove the vehicle last before you set off, rather than once the light goes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
Anywhere in Derbyshire the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Brookside Close.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, perhaps, but 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.
- 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 again, 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. Stage five is out.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Repton?
The short order of things, beginning with no starting the motor. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch the car on. 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 pulled from.
The attendants at BP, Shell or another forecourt will normally lend a hand to push the vehicle clear when you ask. If you are on your own drive in Repton, leave it where it sits.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your engine has already run. On the M42, under 15 miles from Repton, that means the next exit. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Derby, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Repton.
Our arrival in Repton, and what occurs next
Wherever your car has stopped, be it outside Repton Primary School, beside Repton Village Hall or at home, the van comes to it. Our technicians ask what was put in, about how much, and whether it has run, because those answers decide the work and the price. No one heads out before you've heard our quote by phone.
Your system is then flushed thoroughly, after that tank is cleared. Much more than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: crystals build up, some metals corrode, and nothing clears away unaided, however long it is left. Testing is at the end: before that, fresh diesel is added, and the fuel filter is flushed or changed as needed. Next our engineers fire it up and confirm it runs smoothly before we go.
Unstarted vehicles mostly mean a half-hour visit from the moment we arrive. The equipment is safe on a live forecourt, and hushed enough for a residential street late at night. No money in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Repton, for a moment
Repton is a village in Derbyshire, situated on the banks of the River Trent at an elevation of 53 metres. Repton lies approximately 6.6 miles south of Derby and 109.9 miles northwest of London, with nearby villages including Cokhay Green, Milton, and Willington. Repton has a population of around 1754 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing.
AdBlue drains in Repton and across Derbyshire
As a village, Repton has the same vans as nearby areas — Milton, Willington — right through DE postcodes and the surrounding area around them. Fastest of all: give a DE65 6 postcode for the van.
Shifting your car is not needed. Wherever it sits — beside Market Cross, on a layby heading to Mitre Field, at home — that's where it is cleared. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of British Legion, ring and ask instead of guessing.
For Repton drivers, the short version
Always, the cap; then, the tip. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave it off and ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it waits, anywhere in Derbyshire.