West End: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Leave your motor and ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Caught before the motor runs, it's generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in West End. The rest of this page explains why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't — useful if you're reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Many current diesels on the roads round West End and Rickford carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Under one flap, side by side: that's the layout on a lot of motors. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. At the petrol pump, the diesel side is topped up constantly. Far less regularly, the AdBlue side gets topped up — normally from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
West End: how AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place
Carelessness rarely explains it. Instead is three things lining up at once.
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 Bell Square before work, or in the car park at Queen Adelaide on the way home.
Next, your hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old motor — because a hire car, a new car or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
No part halts the tip once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of West End or out in Blagdon.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Be it a West End forecourt or a drive over in Bourne, spend a few seconds over these before anything is poured in.
- Read the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually are not.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on many cars. Look for it.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by your diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Nailsea & Backwell, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
For the day the warning appears — anywhere you are around Somerset — a simple routine to follow.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of High Street.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" aloud while unscrewing it. It sounds daft. It works.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, then check again — making sure the diesel filler remained shut throughout. After that, start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Leave out step five entirely.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in West End?
Do not start your motor: that's where the short order of things starts. The fuel pump starts on many diesels as soon as your ignition goes on — and so keep it off. Filling up with diesel won't dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the base of your tank, just where the fuel is taken from.
Ask the attendants to help roll the vehicle clear of the petrol pump if you are at a forecourt — the Pace, the Esso or somewhere else. On your own drive in West End? So your car remains put.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. On the M5, under 10 miles from West End, that means the next junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Wells, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across West End.
Our arrival in West End, and what happens next
The van comes to the car anywhere it has come to rest — your own driveway, beside Blagdon Village Club, or by Blagdon Primary School. Both the work and our price depend on three replies — what fluid, which quantity, and if it has run — so our technicians ask. That quote comes on the call, before any van leaves.
Emptying your tank comes next, followed by a full flush of the fuel system. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and neither clears out unaided. That is why it counts more. The filter flushed or, where it must be, replaced; fresh diesel in; then a check of your car. The engine is started next and tested to make sure it runs properly, all before we go.
Unstarted cars mostly need a half-hour job from the moment we arrive. The equipment is fine on a busy forecourt, and hushed enough for a residential street after dark. The insurer will ask for the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. Wrong-fuel cover is part of many insurance policies — and so use the wait to look at yours.
About West End, briefly
West End is a suburban area situated on the shores of a lake in Somerset, with a relatively low elevation of 101 metres. West End lies near several small settlements, including Blagdon, Street End, and East End, and is approximately 8.9 miles from the city of Wells. West End has a population of around 860 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. West End is also located at a distance of 112.2 miles from London, making it a relatively rural suburb in the South West region.
AdBlue drains in West End and across Somerset
Being a residential suburb, West End shares its vans nearby areas — Street End, East End — all the way through BS postcodes and the surrounding area around them. Give a postcode beginning BS40 7, and our van gets there fastest.
Your car doesn't need to move. Draining happens on the spot, whether a drive, a road near Saint Andrew's, or a lay-by on the way to The Mead. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Blagdon Pumping Station & Visitor Centre? By a county line? Checking beats assuming, and so phone.
West End motorists: the short version
Always, the cap; after that, the pour. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere in Somerset, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway — so leave the car off then ring 0333 366 0103.