AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Shottery: How It Occurs and How to Stop It
Keep the motor and ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Normally, if your motor hasn't run, it is emptied and thoroughly purged where your vehicle sits in Shottery. Reading in advance? Then what follows explains how it happens and how to prevent it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel feeds the engine — but many newer diesels driven about Shottery and Clopton carry a second fluid too. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the arrangement on many motors. On others, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. At the petrol pump, the diesel side gets filled all the time. Much less frequently, the AdBlue side is topped up — mostly from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. The mistake lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank happen around Shottery?
Carelessness rarely causes it. What does is three things lining up at once.
On a driveway off Cottage Lane before work, or in the car park outside The Bell Inn on the way home: that's where the hurried top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and once it is empty, limp mode kicks in.
Then your car is new. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, after started, carries on. It's a few seconds, whether in Old Town or bang in the centre of Shottery.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Upper Milcote or a forecourt around Shottery, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Read the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue caps are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually aren't.
- The size. On plenty of vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Check inside the fuel flap: many vehicles carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler is if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Check as you pick up a hire car or company car — at Stratford-upon-Avon's car park, perhaps — not once the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
On the day the warning appears — wherever it is in Warwickshire — a routine to follow.
- Pull in somewhere level, motor off, with time to spare — not rushing on the side of Bell Lane.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew it. It sounds daft. It works.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Find at stage two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? Then stop just there. Don't carry on to stage five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Shottery?
Don't start the motor: that is where the short order of things starts. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch the vehicle on. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is drawn from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
The staff at Morrisons, Shell or another forecourt will usually help to push the car away if you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive around Shottery.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your engine has already run. Leave the M40 — under 10 miles out of Shottery — at the next exit. About how far did it go? Crossing Shottery is smaller a job than a run of under 25 miles to Coventry, so say.
When we turn up in Shottery, what happens?
Our engineers come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Shottery St Andrew's CofE Primary School, close to Anne Hathaway's Cottage or on your own drive. Which liquid got in, the amount, and whether it ran: our technicians ask because those answers decide both work and price. You get that price by phone, before anybody heads out.
Your system is then flushed thoroughly, after that tank is drained. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Then we fire it up and make sure it runs properly before leaving.
If your motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. The insurer will ask for the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours once this job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. While we travel, have a look at your policy; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Shottery itself
Shottery is a suburban area located on the riverside in Warwickshire, with a mix of detached housing and a population of around 3058 residents. Shottery sits at an elevation of 41 metres, close to the historic town of Stratford-upon-Avon and near other nearby places such as Old Town and Bishopton. Shottery is situated approximately 17.7 miles from Coventry and 83.1 miles from London, making it a relatively accessible location. Shottery's riverside setting provides a pleasant environment for its residents.
AdBlue drains around Shottery, and Warwickshire beyond
Stratford-upon-Avon and Bishopton are among the towns near Shottery, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, throughout CV postcodes. A postcode starting CV37 9 gets the van to you fastest.
No need to shift the vehicle. Wherever it stands — beside Shottery Memorial Hall, in a layby heading to Hall's Croft Garden, on a drive — that is where it gets drained. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of St Andrew, ring and ask instead of guessing.
Shottery drivers: the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it where it stands, anywhere in Warwickshire: keep it off and phone 0333 366 0103.