West Town: 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 — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. In West Town, finding it before your motor turns usually means draining and a thorough flush where it stands. Not happened yet? Further down, the page covers the why it takes place and the how to avoid it altogether.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Many modern diesels in Brockley, like those in West Town, run on two fluids; your engine gets just your diesel. The exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the gas to fresh them, from a separate tank.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, side by side: that's the arrangement on many motors. On others, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in your boot instead. Topping up the diesel side at the petrol pump goes on constantly. The AdBlue side is filled far less often, usually from a bottle, and normally by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. It's in that gap that the slip happens.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around West Town: how it occurs
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the car, and letting it run dry means limp mode — so a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Chelvey Road, or at Rising Sun on the way home after work.
The old car's cap is where your hand reaches — but a rental car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That is the second thing: a new vehicle.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the pour after it has started. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of West Town or out in Chelvey Batch.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A few seconds is all these take — so check them before you pour anything, on a drive in Chelvey or a forecourt in West Town.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on many cars, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows which it is if your filler isn't next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Ask 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 Nailsea & Backwell.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
Anywhere around Somerset the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Not in a rush on the side of West Town Road, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park and switch off properly.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- Both under a single flap? Then make sure the cap on your diesel side stays shut ahead of raising the bottle.
- Stop when that tank fills or the bottle is empty; until then, pour slowly using the own spout.
- Before starting your car, shut the cap and look again that your diesel cap never opened off.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Stage five stays out.
West Town: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Brief list, then. First: the engine remains off. Leave your ignition off as well, because on many diesels switching it on alone runs your fuel pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is pulled from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it is the Backwell Motors or the another forecourt nearby, ask the attendants to help roll your car away from the pump. If you're on your own drive around West Town, leave the car where it sits.
Where your motor has been run by now, stop safely and switch the vehicle off. The next exit means where to come off if you are on the M5, under 5 miles from West Town. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Bristol, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across West Town.
West Town: what occurs when our technicians get there
Wherever your car came to rest, be it by West Leigh Infant School, beside West Town Methodist Church or on your own drive, our van comes to it. We ask what went in, about how much, and whether it has run, since those replies determine this work and the quote. During the phone call itself, you hear the quote — before dispatch.
Then that tank is cleared and your system flushed thoroughly. Much more than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: the crystals build up, some metals are attacked, and none of it clears out on its own, no matter how long it is left. Filter cleaned or, if needed, replaced; clean diesel in; then a test of your car. Before we go, our engineers fire it up and confirm that it is running properly.
If your motor hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents an insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Wrong-fuel cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — so make use of the wait to check yours.
About West Town
West Town is a small suburban area in Somerset, situated inland at an elevation of around 25 metres. West Town lies close to the city of Bristol, approximately 7 miles to the south, and is near other local places such as Chelvey Batch and Backwell. West Town has a population of around 632 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. West Town is also relatively distant from London, at around 113 miles to the east.
AdBlue drains around West Town, and Somerset beyond
West Town is a residential suburb, and the vans that cover it also work the places near it, Backwell and Brockley Elm among them, across the BS postcode area. A postcode starting BS48 3 gets the van to you fastest.
Moving the vehicle is not necessary. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Backwell School Playing Fields, a side street close to Backwell Parish Council: our technicians drain it where it sits. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Tap's Combe Camp, ring and ask instead of guessing.
The short version for West Town people
Read the cap before you tip. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it wherever it stands, anywhere around Somerset: keep it off and phone 0333 366 0103.