AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Westcourt: How It Happens and How to Avoid It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and your ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. In Westcourt, catching it before the motor turns usually leaves draining and a full flush on the spot. The rest of this page covers why it takes place and how to make sure it does not — handy if you are reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
No single liquid but two: that's what plenty of newer diesels around Westcourt and Ram Alley carry, with diesel for your engine. The exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the fumes to fresh it, from its own tank.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Many of vehicles share a single flap for the two, whereas others put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is fuelled at the pump all the time. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less commonly. It is in the gap that the slip happens.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs in Westcourt
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the vehicle, and running dry means limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Burbage Bypass, or at The White Hart on the way home that evening.
Then the vehicle is strange. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, 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 no more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, once started, carries on. Whether it happens in Stibb Green or the middle of Westcourt, it is the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
A couple of seconds is all these take — so check them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Easton Royal or a forecourt around Westcourt.
- Read the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually are not.
- The size. On plenty of vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Lift the filler flap and look for a label — plenty of cars mark which belongs in each filler right there.
- Cannot see it beside your diesel filler? Then check beneath the bonnet or inside the boot — the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park at Bedwyn? Check with whoever drove the car last before leaving, not when the light goes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
On the day the warning appears — wherever you are across Wiltshire — a simple routine to follow.
- Switch off once parked — level ground, motor off, and never rushed beside Smithys Lane at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the vehicle 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 again, 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. Leave out stage five entirely.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Westcourt?
Brief order, then. First: the motor stays unstarted. Keep your ignition off as well, because on many diesels it by itself starts your fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is drawn from.
Ask the attendants to help roll your car clear of the petrol pump if you are on a forecourt — the Esso, the BP or somewhere else. On your own drive around Westcourt? Then your car remains put.
Where your motor has been run by now, stop somewhere safe and turn it off. Come off the M4 — under 15 miles out of Westcourt — at the next exit. Distance counts — a quick hop across Westcourt is a smaller job than heading under 25 miles towards Salisbury — so say roughly how far it went.
Our arrival in Westcourt, and what happens next
Anywhere the car came to rest, be it outside Burbage Primary School, near All Saints or on your own drive, our van travels to it. What fluid got in, the quantity, and whether it ran: we ask since those replies decide the work and price. During the phone call itself, you are told our quote — before anything else.
Draining that tank comes next, followed by a full flush of your system. Much more than with petrol, it matters here: the crystals build up, some metals are attacked, and none of it clears away on its own, no matter how long it sits. After your filter is flushed — or replaced, if required — fresh diesel is added, and then the car gets tested. Before leaving, our engineers start the engine and make sure that it's running properly.
If the engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents an insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. While we travel, take a look at your policy; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Westcourt and where it is
Westcourt is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Wiltshire, with a mix of detached housing and a population of around 694 residents. Westcourt sits at an elevation of 167 metres, near the villages of Stibb Green and Burbage, and is approximately 20 miles from the city of Salisbury. Westcourt is also within commuting distance of London, being around 67 miles to the southwest of the capital. Westcourt's riverside setting provides a distinctive character to the area.
AdBlue drains around Westcourt and across Wiltshire
As a residential suburb, Westcourt has the same vans as surrounding places — Burbage, Marr Green — all the way across SN postcodes and the surrounding area around them. A postcode starting SN8 3 gets the van to you fastest.
Your car remains put. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Ladywell Copse, a side street near Village Hall: our engineers drain the car where it sits. Awkward to explain, like the back of Wolfhall? Close to a border? Checking is better than guessing, so ring.
In short, for Westcourt motorists
Read the cap before you pour. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere in Wiltshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless — and so leave the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103.