Upper Weston: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Leave your motor and ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. In Upper Weston, finding it before the motor turns normally means a drain and a thorough flush on the spot. Reading before the event? In that case what follows covers why it happens and what to stop it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of newer diesels in Newbridge, as well as Upper Weston, run on two fluids; the motor gets only the diesel. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the layout on many vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in your boot instead. The diesel side is topped up at the pump all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less commonly, normally from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
Upper Weston: how AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your 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 driveway off Greenacres before work, or in the car park outside The Old Crown on the way home.
The old car's cap is where the hand goes — but a hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That's a second factor: an unfamiliar car.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the tip once it has started. Weston or the middle of Upper Weston: it takes the same few seconds either way.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
A few seconds is all these take — so check them before you tip anything, on a drive in Weston Park or a forecourt in Upper Weston.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually don't.
- Many motors give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on many motors. Check for it.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler sits if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Oldfield Park? Check with the person who drove the car last before you set off, rather than when the light goes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
For the day the light appears — wherever you are around Somerset — a routine to follow.
- Switch off after you park — flat ground, motor off, and not in a rush by Leighton Road at the roadside.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, yes, but it does the trick.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where both share a flap, confirm it is closed before the bottle comes up.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, and check again — making sure your diesel filler stayed closed the whole time. After that, start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Step five is out.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Upper Weston?
Don't start the engine: that's where the short order of things starts. Do not switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Topping up with diesel will not thin it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the base of the tank, right where fuel is taken from.
At a forecourt — Gulf, Sainsbury's or any other — the attendants will normally help roll the vehicle clear, when you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive in Upper Weston.
Already started? Stop once it's safe, then switch off. On the M4, under 10 miles from Upper Weston, that means the next junction. Distance matters — a quick hop across Upper Weston makes a smaller job than heading under 3 miles to Bath — so tell us about how far it went.
Our arrival in Upper Weston, and what takes place next
Outside Weston All Saints CofE Primary School, close to Ex-Servicemen's Association or on your own drive: wherever your car has stopped, our engineers come to it. Which fluid got in, the amount, and if it ran: our engineers ask because those replies decide the work and quote. Nobody sets off before you've heard the price over the phone.
Emptying your tank comes next, then a thorough flush of the fuel system. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and none of that washes out unaided. That is why it counts more. Testing is at the end: before that, clean diesel goes in, and your filter is cleaned or changed as needed. We don't go until it has been fired up and is running smoothly.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour after our engineers arrive, as long as the engine has not run — and the pumps we use are fine on a busy forecourt yet quiet at night beside a house. Your insurer will ask for the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours once this job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. While we travel, take a look at your policy; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Upper Weston
Upper Weston is a suburban area located on the riverside in Somerset, with a mix of semi-detached housing and other residential properties. Upper Weston sits near the city of Bath, approximately 2.1 miles away, and is part of the larger urban area surrounding the city. Upper Weston has a population of around 2995 people and is situated at an elevation of 96 metres, close to nearby places such as Weston and Combe Park.
AdBlue drains around Upper Weston and across Somerset
Upper Weston is a residential suburb, and our vans that cover it also work the places around it, Combe Park and Lansdown among them, across the BA postcode area. Fastest of all: quote a BA1 4 postcode to our van.
No need to shift the car. Draining happens on the spot, whether a drive, a road near Weston Free Church, or a lay-by on the way to Weston Recreation Ground. Tricky to explain, like the back of Weston Parish Hall? By a border? Checking is better than assuming, and so ring.
The short version for Upper Weston people
First, the cap; after that, the pour. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere in Somerset, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless — and so leave the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103.