Tutnalls: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and your ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103. Usually, when the engine has not turned, it's emptied and fully cleaned where your vehicle sits in Tutnalls. Nothing happened yet? Below, the page explains the reasons it happens and the ways to prevent it for good.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Plenty of newer diesels in Naas, as well as Tutnalls, carry on two liquids; the engine takes just your diesel. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust stream to clean it.
Each tank comes with a filler of its own. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. Much less often, the AdBlue side is filled — mostly from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. That gap is where the mistake lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen in Tutnalls?
Rarely 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 goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Orchard Road before work, or in the car park at The Greyhound on the way home.
The old car's cap is where your hand reaches — but a hire car, a new car or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That's a second factor: a strange car.
Third, the spout fits: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in just as easily, and once the tip begins, nothing halts it. Whether it takes place in Newerne or the middle of Tutnalls, it's the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Primrose Hill or a forecourt around Tutnalls, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally is not. Read it rather than going by position.
- On plenty of cars, the size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside your fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Check for it.
- Can't find it next to the diesel inlet? Then look beneath the bonnet or in your boot — the owner's manual will say where.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Lydney? Check with the person who drove the vehicle last before you set off, rather than once the light goes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
Wherever across Gloucestershire the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Beaufort Drive.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" aloud as unscrewing it. It sounds silly. It works.
- The diesel cap remains on. When both share a flap, confirm it's shut before lifting the bottle.
- Finish once the tank fills or the bottle runs dry; until then, pour gently through its built-in spout.
- Only then, start the vehicle: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Never go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Tutnalls?
Do not start the engine: that is how the short order of things begins. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch the car on. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is sucked from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
Ask the attendants to help push your car away from the petrol pump if you're at a forecourt — the Tesco, the Co-op or anywhere else. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive around Tutnalls.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Tutnalls sits under 10 miles from the M5; there, take the first exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Gloucester, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Tutnalls.
What happens when our technicians get there around Tutnalls
Our van reaches the vehicle wherever it stopped — your own driveway, near Community Centre, or outside Severnbanks Primary School. Both the work and the price rest on three replies — what fluid, which quantity, and if it's run — so we ask. During the phone call itself, you are told the price — ahead of dispatch.
Then the tank is drained and your system flushed thoroughly. Much more than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: crystals build up, certain metals are attacked, and none of it clears away on its own, however long it is left. Filter flushed or, where it must be, replaced; clean diesel in; then a check of the car. Then we fire it up and make sure it runs correctly before we leave.
With pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your motor hasn't run take about half an hour once our engineers are there. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork an insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — and so use the wait to check yours.
About Tutnalls
Tutnalls is a suburban area in Gloucestershire, situated near the coast and approximately 15 miles from Gloucester. Tutnalls has a relatively low elevation of 18 metres and is close to nearby places such as Newerne and Lydney. Tutnalls is characterized by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock, which reflects the area's residential nature.
Tutnalls and Gloucestershire: AdBlue drains across the area
As a residential suburb, Tutnalls has the same vans as nearby areas — Lydney, Highfield — all the way through GL postcodes and the wider area beyond. A postcode starting GL15 5 gets our van to you fastest.
Shifting the car isn't necessary. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near Tower, a lay-by on the way to Bathurst Park, a drive. Awkward to explain, like the back of Studio 16? Close to a county line? Asking is better than guessing, and so ring.
For Tutnalls motorists, the short version
Pour nothing until you've read the cap. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it wherever it is, anywhere around Gloucestershire: switch the car off then phone 0333 366 0103.