Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Stoford: Why It Occurs
Keep the motor and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Caught before your engine runs, it's generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Stoford. 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.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Many modern diesels on the roads about Stoford and Darvole carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. Your exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the gas to fresh them, from a separate tank.
There is a filler for every tank. Plenty of motors have a single flap for both, while others put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Filling your diesel side at the pump goes on all the time. Seldom filled, AdBlue normally goes in from a bottle, tipped by a driver who must stop and think what filler to use. It is in that gap that the mistake lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Stoford: how it happens
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out altogether, your vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Meadow View before work, or in the car park outside Royal Oak on the way home.
Next, the hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old vehicle — since a rental car, a new car or a company car places the fillers where your last one didn't.
No part halts the pour after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it takes place in Barwick or the middle of Stoford, it is the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Be it a Stoford forecourt or a drive out in Bradford Abbas, take a few seconds on these before anything goes in.
- Read the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue caps are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally aren't.
- Many vehicles give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Check inside your fuel flap: plenty of cars carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says which it is when your filler isn't next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The previous driver will know. Check when you pick up a hire car or fleet car — at Yeovil Junction's car park, perhaps — not when the warning appears.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Somerset that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Five Acres, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park and switch off properly.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, yes, but it does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. When the two share a flap, confirm it's shut before the bottle comes up.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the vehicle, shut the cap and look a second time that the diesel cap was never opened off.
Discover at the second or third stage that AdBlue went into the wrong tank? That is where you stop. Step five is off limits.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Stoford?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the motor. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch it on. AdBlue does not 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 dilute it.
Ask the staff to help roll the vehicle away from the pump if you're on a forecourt — the Texaco, the Morrisons or anywhere else. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive around Stoford.
When the motor has run by now, stop safely then turn the vehicle off. The next exit is where to leave if you're on the M5, under 25 miles from Stoford. Mileage counts — a short hop across Stoford makes a smaller job than driving under 25 miles towards Wells — so tell us about how far it went.
What happens when we turn up in Stoford
By Barwick and Stoford Community Primary School, near Jack the Treacle Eater or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, our engineers come to it. Both the work and the quote depend on three replies — which liquid, which quantity, and whether it's run — so our engineers ask. During the call itself, you hear the quote — before dispatch.
Then your tank is drained and the fuel system rinsed thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. A test comes last: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and your filter is cleaned or changed if necessary. After that our technicians fire it up and make sure it runs smoothly before we go.
Unrun cars mostly mean a half-hour job from arrival. The kit is fine on a busy filling station, and hushed enough for a residential street late at night. Your insurer will ask for an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. Before we get there, have a look at your policy; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Stoford and where it is
Stoford is a small village in Somerset, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 38 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Stoford lies near the villages of Barwick, Clifton Maybank, and Lower Key, and is approximately 20 miles from the city of Wells. Stoford has a population of around 567 residents, who live in a rural setting that is around 115 miles west of London. Stoford is part of the wider South West region of England, known for its picturesque countryside and historic towns.
AdBlue drains round Stoford, and Somerset beyond
Stoford is a village, and our vans that cover it also work the towns around it, Clifton Maybank and Lower Key among them, across the BA postcode area. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting BA22 9.
The vehicle remains put. We drain it where it is — a side street close to St Mary Magdalene, a lay-by on the way to Barwick and Stoford Community Primary School, a driveway. Assuming won't help behind Barwick Obelisk, on a border, or somewhere awkward to describe; ring and ask.
For Stoford drivers, the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will empty it wherever it stands, wherever across Somerset: keep it off then call 0333 366 0103.