AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Shortwood: How It Happens and How to Avoid It
Pause reading a minute when the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and call 0333 366 0103. In Shortwood, finding it before the motor turns usually leaves draining and a full flush where it stands. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the page explains the reasons it happens and the ways to prevent it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Diesel goes to the motor — but plenty of current diesels seen around Shortwood and Walkleywood hold a second liquid as well. 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. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is topped up at the pump all the time. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less commonly. That gap is where the slip lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Shortwood: how it happens
Carelessness seldom causes it. Instead is three things lining up at once.
Haste follows from the warning. The vehicle tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a drive off Pike Lane, or on the way home in the car park at The George Inn.
Unfamiliar cars come next, too. Hire cars, new cars and company motors place their fillers in new places, and the hand goes for the cap used on the old one.
Third, the spout fits: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in just as readily, and after the tip starts, nothing halts it. Whether it takes place in Newmarket or the middle of Shortwood, it is the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Whether a Shortwood forecourt or a driveway out in Rockness, take a few seconds over these before anything goes in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually is not. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Open the flap and check for a label — many motors mark what goes in each filler right there.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by the diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Stroud, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Gloucestershire that is.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Shortwood Road.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, yes, yet it does the trick.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, then look again — making sure your diesel filler stayed closed the whole time. After that, start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Never go on to step five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Shortwood?
Short list, then. First: your motor stays off. Keep your ignition off as well, because on many diesels it alone runs the 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.
Ask the attendants to help push the car away from the pump if you're at a forecourt — the Shell, the Esso or somewhere else. If you are on your own driveway in Shortwood, leave the vehicle where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the motor has already run. The next junction is where to come off if you're on the M5, under 10 miles from Shortwood. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Shortwood is smaller a job than a run of under 15 miles towards Gloucester, so tell us.
Shortwood: what occurs when our engineers get there
Our van comes to the car anywhere it stopped — your own driveway, beside Arkell Community Centre, or outside Nailsworth Church of England Primary School. The answers settle this work and our price, so we ask what went in, roughly how much, and if it's run. No one sets off before you've had the price by phone.
Emptying the tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the fuel system. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and none of that clears out unaided. Hence it counts more. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. We do not go until it has been fired up and is running smoothly.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour once our technicians get there, as long as the motor hasn't run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a busy forecourt yet quiet after dark beside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Before we get there, have a look at your policy; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Shortwood
Shortwood is a suburban area in Gloucestershire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 113 metres. Shortwood lies near the cities of Gloucester and the surrounding villages of Newmarket, Worley, and Wallow Green. Shortwood has a population of approximately 1748 residents, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Shortwood is located 91.3 miles west of London, in the South West region of England.
AdBlue drains across Gloucestershire, Shortwood included
Shortwood is a residential suburb, and the vans that cover it also work the places near it, Worley and Wallow Green among them, across the GL postcode area. Quote a postcode beginning GL6 0, and the van arrives fastest.
The vehicle doesn't need to shift. Anywhere it stands — beside The New Lawn, in a layby en route to Queen Elizabeth Field, on a drive — that's where it gets cleared. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Christ Church.
Shortwood people: the short version
Read the cap before you tip. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it wherever it stands, wherever across Gloucestershire: switch the vehicle off then phone 0333 366 0103.