AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Sparkford: How It Occurs and How to Prevent It
Stop here a minute when your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Sparkford. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Many newer diesels in Queen Camel, like those in Sparkford, carry on two fluids; your engine gets only the 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.
Different tanks, separate fillers. Many of motors share a single flap for the two, whereas some put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Filling your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on constantly. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less frequently. That gap is where the slip lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs in Sparkford
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
Hurry follows from the warning. The car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a drive off Orchard Close, or on the way home in the car park at The Sparkford Inn.
Then the vehicle is new. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spouted bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, once begun, carries on. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Sparkford or out in Sparkford Hill.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A few seconds is all these take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a driveway in South Barrow or a forecourt around Sparkford.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually don't.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of cars say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by your diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Castle Cary, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
Anywhere across Somerset the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Stop somewhere level, engine off, with time in hand — never rushing on the side of Ainstey Drive.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, perhaps, but it works.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where the two share a flap, confirm it's closed before lifting the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start the vehicle: close the cap, check once more, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Stage five is out.
Sparkford: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Brief list, then. First: the motor remains off. Don't switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is pulled from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it is the Shell or the Harvest Energy, ask the attendants to help roll the car clear of the pump. If you are on your own drive around Sparkford, leave it where it stands.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the engine has already run. Come off the M5 — under 25 miles out of Sparkford — at the next exit. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Wells, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Sparkford.
Sparkford: what happens when our engineers get there
Outside Countess Gytha Primary School, near St Mary Magdalene or on your own driveway: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our technicians come to it. We ask what was put in, about how much, and if it has run, because those answers settle the work and the price. No one sets off until you have had the quote over the phone.
The fuel system is then purged thoroughly, after that tank is emptied. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. A test comes last: before that, clean diesel is added, and your filter is cleaned or changed as needed. We don't go until it has been fired up and is running correctly.
Unstarted cars mostly mean a half-hour visit from arrival. The equipment is fine on a busy filling station, and hushed enough for a residential street late at night. The insurer usually wants an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Sparkford
Sparkford is a village in the South West of England, situated on the riverside in Somerset, with Sparkford being close to the nearby settlements of Sparkford Hill, Weston Bampfylde, and Little Weston. Sparkford has a population of around 728 people and is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock. Sparkford sits at an elevation of 43 metres, near the city of Wells, which is approximately 12.7 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Somerset, Sparkford included
Throughout BA postcodes, our teams that cover Sparkford — a village — work the nearby spots too, Little Weston and Weston Bampfylde included. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting BA22 7.
Shifting your car isn't needed. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near Haynes International Motor Museum, a lay-by on the way to Sparkford Hill Copse, a drive. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Karting at Haynes, ring and ask rather than guessing.
For Sparkford people, the short version
Read the cap before you tip. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Leave the car off then call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, across Somerset.