How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Upper Morton
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case set this page down a moment, leave your ignition and motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. Normally, if the motor has not turned, it is emptied and thoroughly rinsed where the vehicle sits in Upper Morton. The rest of this page explains why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't — handy if you are reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Plenty of newer diesels in Newton, like those in Upper Morton, carry on two fluids; the engine gets just your diesel. Its own tank holds it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, and there a spray cleans the gas.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Many of cars share a single flap for both, while some move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, your diesel side is topped up constantly. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less frequently. The mistake grows in that gap between them.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank happens in Upper Morton
Carelessness rarely causes it. Instead is three things lining up at once.
Hurry comes from the warning. The car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a drive off Gloucester Road, or on the way home in the car park outside The Anchor.
New-to-you cars come second, too. Hire cars, new cars and company motors place their fillers in new places, and habit goes for the cap it used on the old one.
Third, the bottle goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in as readily, and after the tip starts, no part halts it. Whether it happens in Morton or the middle of Upper Morton, it is the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a drive in Duckhole or a forecourt around Upper Morton.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Go by the cap, not its position.
- Plenty of cars give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by your diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before knows. Check as you collect a hire car or company car — at Yate's car park, say — not once the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
Anywhere around Gloucestershire the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Otter Way, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park then switch off properly.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- 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.
- Shut the cap, and look again — making sure the diesel cap stayed shut the whole time. Only then, start the car.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Step five is out.
Upper Morton: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the motor. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels the moment the ignition goes on — and so keep it off. Topping up with diesel will not weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the base of the tank, right where the fuel is taken from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it is the Thornbury Motors or the Tesco, ask the staff to help roll the car clear of the petrol pump. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive in Upper Morton.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. On the M5, under 3 miles from Upper Morton, that means the next exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Bristol, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Upper Morton.
Upper Morton: what occurs when our engineers arrive
Anywhere the car has stopped, whether outside Manorbrook Primary School, near Morton Baptist Church or at home, the van travels to it. The answers decide this work and our quote, and so we ask what was put in, about how much, and if it's run. You get that quote on the phone, before anybody sets off.
Next: draining, then a full flush of the whole system. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own. Filter cleaned or, if it must be, swapped; fresh diesel in; then a check of your vehicle. The motor is started next and checked to make sure it runs correctly, all before we leave.
Using pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your motor hasn't run take roughly half an hour after our engineers arrive. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Upper Morton, briefly
Upper Morton is a small hamlet in Gloucestershire, situated near the coast and close to the cities of Bristol and Gloucester. Upper Morton lies at an elevation of 38 metres, within a short distance of nearby settlements such as Morton and Lower Morton. Upper Morton is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its rural setting. Upper Morton is also relatively close to major urban centres, with Bristol just 12 miles away and London around 103 miles distant.
AdBlue drains around Upper Morton and across Gloucestershire
As a rural hamlet, Upper Morton shares its vans nearby places — Lower Morton, Crossways — right across BS postcodes and the wider area beyond. Quickest of all: quote a BS35 1 postcode for our van.
No need to shift the vehicle. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Morton Meadows, a side street close to St Mary's Church Hall: we drain the vehicle where it is. Guessing won't help at the back of St Paul's, close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe; phone and ask.
For Upper Morton motorists, the short version
Always, the cap; after that, the pour. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere across Gloucestershire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway — so leave the car off and call 0333 366 0103.