Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Stoke Bishop: Why It Occurs
Leave the engine and ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. A drain and a thorough flush, carried out just where your vehicle sits in Stoke Bishop, is normally what it needs if found before the engine runs. Reading before the event? In that case the rest covers why it comes about and how to stop it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Many modern diesels on the roads about Stoke Bishop and Lawrence Weston carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. Your exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the gas to clean it, from a separate tank.
There is a filler for each tank. Other vehicles keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot more have both side by side behind one flap. Topping up your diesel side at the pump goes on constantly. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less regularly. It is in that gap that the mistake lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Stoke Bishop: how it takes place
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Shirehampton Road before work, or in the car park at The Mill House on the way home.
Then, your hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old vehicle — since a hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
Third, the spout goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in just as readily, and after the tip begins, nothing halts it. Whether it occurs in Coombe Dingle or the middle of Stoke Bishop, it's the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Shirehampton or a forecourt in Stoke Bishop, check these. They take a few seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually isn't. Read it rather than going by position.
- Many cars fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Check for it.
- The handbook says where it is when your filler is not 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 at Sea Mills.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
Anywhere in Bristol the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Turn off after you park — flat ground, engine off, and not in a rush by East Parade on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- Both behind a single flap? Then confirm the lid on the diesel filler is still shut before lifting the bottle.
- Stop once your tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; before that, pour gently through the built-in spout.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Spot at step two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? Then stop right there. Stage five is off limits.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Stoke Bishop already?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with no starting your motor. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch the vehicle on. Topping up with diesel won't thin it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of the tank, just where fuel is drawn from.
The attendants at BP, Texaco or another forecourt will usually lend a hand to push the vehicle away if asked. Your own drive around Stoke Bishop is where it should stay.
Where your engine has been run by now, stop safely then turn the car off. The next junction means where to leave if you're on the M49, under 3 miles from Stoke Bishop. Distance counts — a quick hop across Stoke Bishop makes a smaller job than heading under 5 miles towards Bristol — so say roughly how far it went.
When we turn up in Stoke Bishop, what occurs?
Anywhere your car has stopped, be it by Sea Mills Primary School and Nursery, near Sea Mills 100 Museum or on your own drive, our van travels to it. Those replies decide the work and our quote, and so our engineers ask what went in, about how much, and if it's run. No one sets off until you've had the quote by phone.
Next: draining, then a thorough flush of the entire system. 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 the flush matters more here than with petrol. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Next our engineers fire it up and check it runs correctly before we leave.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour after our engineers get there, provided the engine has not run — and the pumps our technicians use are fine on a live forecourt yet quiet at night beside a house. Nothing in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. It is worth checking your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Stoke Bishop itself
Stoke Bishop is a suburban area in Bristol, situated near the coast and approximately 3.2 miles from the city centre. Stoke Bishop lies at an elevation of around 30 metres, overlooking the River Avon and the surrounding countryside. Stoke Bishop is characterised by its semi-detached housing and is close to nearby places such as Coombe Dingle and Sea Mills. Stoke Bishop is also near Sneyd Park, another residential area in Bristol.
AdBlue drains around Stoke Bishop, and Bristol beyond
Stoke Bishop is a residential suburb, and our teams that cover it also work the towns around it, Sea Mills and Sneyd Park among them, across the BS postcode area. Quickest of all: quote a BS9 2 postcode to our van.
Shifting the vehicle is not needed. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street close to Sea Mills AD 2000, a lay-by on the way to Trym Valley, a drive. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Sea Mills Methodist Church, ring and ask rather than guessing.
Stoke Bishop people: the short version
Pour no AdBlue till you have read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave the vehicle off and ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it sits, anywhere around Bristol.