Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Southam: Why It Occurs
Leave your motor and ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Caught before your engine runs, it is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Southam. The remainder of this page explains why it takes place and how to make sure it does not — useful if you are reading before it has happened.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Plenty of newer diesels in Stockton, like those in Southam, run on two fluids; your motor gets only your diesel. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There is a filler on each tank. Plenty of cars have a single flap for the two, while others put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Topping up the diesel side at the pump happens constantly. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less commonly. Mistakes happen in that gap between them.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Southam: how it takes place
It is seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Hurry comes from the warning. The vehicle tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a drive off Market Hill, or heading home in the car park at The Bull Inn.
Next, the hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old car — since a rental car, a new car or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
No part halts the pour once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Bascote or the middle of Southam: it takes the same few seconds either way.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Ladbroke or a forecourt in Southam.
- Read the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally are not.
- On many motors, the size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside your fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Look for it.
- The handbook shows where it is when your filler isn't next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Leamington Spa.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
When the light comes on, anywhere in Warwickshire, follow this routine.
- Switch off once parked — level ground, motor off, and not rushed beside Daventry Street on the verge.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, yes, but it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the vehicle on.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap, then look again — making sure your diesel cap stayed shut throughout. After that, start the car.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Skip step five altogether.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Southam already?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your motor. The fuel pump runs on many diesels the moment your ignition goes on — so leave it off. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is sucked from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
At a forecourt — Shell, Tesco or another — the staff will normally help push the car away, if you ask. If you're on your own driveway in Southam, leave the car where it sits.
When the engine has run already, pull over safely then turn the car off. Southam lies under 5 miles from the M40; on it, use the next exit. A short hop across Southam is a smaller job than a run towards Coventry, under 15 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
When our engineers get there around Southam, what happens?
Outside St Mary's Catholic Primary School, Southam, near Southam Library or on your own driveway: wherever the car has stopped, our technicians come to it. What liquid was put in, the quantity, and if it ran: we ask since the replies decide both work and price. Nobody heads out until you have heard our price by phone.
After that: draining, then a thorough flush of the entire system. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and neither washes away by itself. Hence it counts more. The filter flushed or, where needed, replaced; clean diesel in; and then a test of your car. Your engine is started next and tested to confirm it runs correctly, all before our engineers head off.
If the motor hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Nothing upfront; you settle up that day. At the end, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies — so use the wait to look at yours.
About Southam
Southam is a town in Warwickshire, situated on the River Stowe and the River Itchen, with a mix of semi-detached housing and other residential properties. Southam sits at an elevation of 89 metres, near the villages of Bascote and Bascote Heath, and is located approximately 11.8 miles from Coventry. Southam has a population of around 8103 people and is within commuting distance of major cities, including London which is 74.4 miles away.
AdBlue drains about Southam, and Warwickshire beyond
Southam is a riverside town, and our vans that cover it also work the towns around it, Model Village and Bascote Heath among them, across the CV postcode area. Fastest of all: quote a CV47 0 postcode to the van.
The car stays where it is. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Southam Cricket Club, a side street close to Congregational Church: our engineers drain the vehicle where it is. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of St. James.
In short, for Southam drivers
Before you pour, read the cap. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it wherever it is, wherever across Warwickshire: keep the car off and call 0333 366 0103.