Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Upper Ham: Why It Happens
Leave the motor and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Caught before the motor runs, it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Upper Ham. Here before the event? In that case what follows covers why it comes about and what to stop it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel goes to your engine — but plenty of newer diesels driven around Upper Ham and Longdon Heath hold a second liquid too. Your exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the fumes to fresh it, from a separate tank.
Each tank has 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 the boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is filled at the petrol pump all the time. Rarely filled, AdBlue usually goes in out of a bottle, poured by a driver who has to stop and think what filler it needs. That gap is where the mistake lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Upper Ham: how it occurs
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
Haste follows from the warning. The car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a driveway off Rectory Road, or on the way home in the car park outside The Little Upton Muggery.
Then the vehicle is strange. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spouted bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, once started, keeps on. Whether it occurs in Saxons Lode or the middle of Upper Ham, it's the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Look at these before pouring, at a forecourt around Upper Ham or a driveway out in Tunnel Hill. Seconds, that's all.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Trust the cap, not its position.
- On many motors, the size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler sits if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Ask when you pick up a hire car or company car — at Ashchurch for Tewkesbury's car park, perhaps — rather than when the light appears.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
Wherever across Worcestershire the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Charles Orchard, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park and switch off first.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you've found the filler and read it.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start your car: 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. Step five is off limits.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Upper Ham already?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with no starting your engine. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch it on. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is pulled from.
Ask the attendants to help roll the vehicle away from the pump if you are at a forecourt — the the nearest petrol station, the John Pane's Regal Garage or anywhere else. Your own drive around Upper Ham is the place it should stay.
When the engine has been run already, stop somewhere safe and turn the car off. Upper Ham lies under 3 miles from the M50; there, use the first exit. A short hop across Upper Ham is a smaller job than a run towards Worcester, under 10 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
Upper Ham: what takes place when we get there
The van reaches the car anywhere it has come to rest — your own drive, beside St Peter & St Paul, or by Upton-Upon-Severn CofE Primary and Pre School. The answers settle the work and our quote, and so our engineers ask what went in, roughly how much, and if it's run. On the phone call itself, you are told the quote — ahead of anything else.
Your system is then rinsed thoroughly, once the 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. Once the filter has been flushed — or replaced, where needed — clean diesel goes in, and finally your car is tested. Next we fire it up and make sure it runs smoothly before we go.
If your motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Upper Ham itself
Upper Ham is a small locality in Worcestershire, situated near the River Severn and close to the towns of Upton upon Severn and Worcester. Upper Ham lies in a low-lying area, with an elevation of around 13 metres, and is characterized by semi-detached housing. Upper Ham is part of a network of rural communities and villages in the area, including Saxons Lode and Newbridge Green.
AdBlue drains in Upper Ham and across Worcestershire
Throughout WR postcodes, our vans covering Upper Ham — a small village — work the surrounding places too, Upton upon Severn and Newbridge Green among them. Give a postcode that starts WR8 0, and the van arrives quickest.
Your car stays where it is. The drain takes place right there, be it a drive, a road by Church Room, or a layby towards Dog Wood. Assuming won't help behind St Joseph's Catholic Church, on a border, or somewhere awkward to pin down; ring and check.
The short version for Upper Ham motorists
Tip no AdBlue until you have read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Leave it off then phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, across Worcestershire.