Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Upper Cam
Stop reading a minute if your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then call 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, carried out right where your car sits in Upper Cam, is usually what it needs when found before the motor runs. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the page explains the reasons it happens and the how to prevent it altogether.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Many modern diesels around Lower Cam, as well as Upper Cam, run on two fluids; the motor takes only your diesel. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Every tank comes with a filler of its own. Many of motors share a single flap for the two, whereas others put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, your diesel side is topped up constantly. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less regularly. Mistakes happen in that gap between them.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank take place around Upper Cam?
Carelessness rarely explains it. Instead is three things coming up together.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the car drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Millbank before work, or in the car park outside The Railway on the way home.
Then the vehicle is new. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Third, the spout goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in as readily, and once the pour begins, nothing stops it. Whether it takes place in Everlands or the middle of Upper Cam, it is the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Upthorpe or a forecourt in Upper Cam.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Trust the cap, not its position.
- Plenty of vehicles fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Look inside the fuel flap: many cars carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler is if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Cam & Dursley.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
When the light goes on, wherever in Gloucestershire, follow this routine.
- Stop on level, engine off, with time to spare — not rushing on the side of Hopton Road.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, perhaps, but it does the trick.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the vehicle, close the cap and check again that the diesel cap was never opened off.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Stage five is off limits.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Upper Cam?
Do not start the motor: that's where the short order of things starts. Do not switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Thinning it with extra diesel fails, because AdBlue sinks to the bottom rather than mixing — and that's where the fuel is sucked from.
The staff at Texaco, Shell or another forecourt will usually help pushing the vehicle away if you ask. On your own drive in Upper Cam? So your car stays where it is.
When the motor has run by now, stop safely and turn it off. The next junction means the place to come off when you are on the M5, under 3 miles from Upper Cam. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Gloucester, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Upper Cam.
What takes place when we turn up around Upper Cam
Wherever the vehicle has stopped, be it by Cam Hopton Church of England Primary School, near Cam War Memorial or at home, the van travels to it. Our engineers ask what was put in, about how much, and whether it has run, since the answers decide this work and our quote. The quote comes on the call, before any van leaves.
The system is then cleaned thoroughly, after that tank is drained. More than with petrol, it matters here: the crystals build up, some metals are attacked, and nothing clears out on its own, however long it sits. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. We do not go until it has been started and is running smoothly.
If your motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Before we get there, take a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Upper Cam, for a moment
Upper Cam is a suburban area located on the riverside in Gloucestershire, with a mix of semi-detached housing and a population of around 2995 residents. Upper Cam sits at an elevation of 51 metres, near the cities of Gloucester and the surrounding areas of Everlands, Norman Hill, and Summerhayes. Upper Cam is positioned approximately 96.5 miles west of London, in the South West region of England. Upper Cam has a relatively low elevation, typical of the riverside areas in this part of Gloucestershire.
AdBlue drains around Upper Cam and across Gloucestershire
Norman Hill and Summerhayes are among the places around Upper Cam, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, over GL postcodes. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting GL11 5.
Moving the vehicle is not necessary. Wherever it sits — near St George's Church, on a lay-by en route to Holywell Orchard, at home — that is where it is cleared. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of 3C Community Church, ring and ask rather than guessing.
In short, for Upper Cam drivers
First, the cap; then, the pour. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway, leave the vehicle off and ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it sits, anywhere in Gloucestershire.