Ruardean: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
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. A drain and a full flush, done right where the car stands in Ruardean, is usually what it needs if caught before your motor runs. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Diesel feeds the engine — yet many modern diesels seen round Ruardean and Ruardean Hill hold a second fluid too. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Every tank comes with one filler of its own. Other cars put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others place the two together under one flap. Topping up the diesel side at the pump goes on constantly. Much less often, the AdBlue side gets filled — mostly from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
Ruardean: how AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs
It's rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from your car, and letting it run out means limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Cats Hill, or outside The Malt Shovel Inn on the way home after work.
New-to-you cars come next, too. Hire cars, new cars and company cars place their fillers in new places, and the hand reaches for the cap used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the tip once it has started. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Ruardean or out in Ruardean Woodside.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a drive in Joys Green or a forecourt in Ruardean.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Go by the cap, not its position.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of motors, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Look for it.
- The handbook says where it lives when your filler is not next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Lydney, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
The day the light goes on, anywhere in Gloucestershire, use this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of High Street, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park and switch off first.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. When the two sit under a flap, confirm it is closed before the bottle comes up.
- Stop when that tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; until then, tip gently using the built-in spout.
- Shut the cap, and look again — making sure the diesel cap stayed shut throughout. After that, start the vehicle.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Never carry on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Ruardean already?
Do not start the engine: that's how the short order of things starts. Leave the ignition off too, because on many diesels switching it on by itself starts your fuel pump. Topping up with diesel won't weaken it: instead, AdBlue drops to the bottom of that tank, right where fuel is taken from.
On a forecourt — the nearest petrol station, BP or another — the attendants will normally help push the vehicle away, when you ask. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway around Ruardean.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your motor has already run. The next junction means the place to leave if you are on the M50, under 10 miles from Ruardean. A short hop across Ruardean is a smaller job than a run towards Gloucester, under 15 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
Our arrival in Ruardean, and what happens next
Anywhere the vehicle came to rest, be it outside Ruardean Church of England Primary School, beside Church of St John the Baptist or on your own drive, the van travels to it. The answers decide this work and our price, and so we ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether it's run. That quote comes on the call, before any van leaves.
Then the tank is emptied and the system purged thoroughly. Much more than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: the crystals build up, certain metals are attacked, and none of it clears away unaided, no matter how long it is left. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. The engine is started next and checked to make sure it runs properly, all before our engineers go.
Unrun cars mostly mean a half-hour visit after the moment we arrive. The kit is fine on a live forecourt, and hushed enough for a residential street late at night. Your insurer will ask for the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both once this job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. Misfuelling cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — so use the wait to check yours.
About Ruardean
Ruardean is a village in Gloucestershire, situated on the banks of a river in the South West region of England. Ruardean sits at an elevation of 197 metres, with Ruardean Woodside and other nearby settlements forming a small community. Ruardean has a mix of housing types, with semi-detached homes being predominant. Ruardean is located approximately 13 miles from Gloucester and 106 miles from London.
Ruardean and Gloucestershire: AdBlue drains across the area
Being a village, Ruardean has the same vans as surrounding places — Readings, The Pludds — right through GL postcodes and the wider area around them. A postcode starting GL17 9 gets the van to you fastest.
Moving the vehicle isn't needed. Anywhere it sits — near James & William Horlick, in a layby en route to Broomy Hall, at home — that's where it gets drained. Assuming doesn't help behind Ruardean Castle, on a border, or somewhere hard to describe; ring and ask.
In short, for Ruardean motorists
Before you pour, read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Leave it switched off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, across Gloucestershire.