How It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Westend
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case put this page aside a moment, leave your ignition and motor off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Normally, if the engine hasn't run, it's emptied and thoroughly rinsed where your car is around Westend. Nothing happened yet? Below, the rest of the page covers the reasons it occurs and the how to avoid it altogether.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
No single liquid but two: that is what plenty of newer diesels near Westend and Nastend run, with diesel feeding the 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.
Every tank has a filler of its own. Under one flap, side by side: that is the layout on a lot of vehicles. On others, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in the boot instead. The diesel side is topped up at the petrol pump all the time. Far less often, the AdBlue side gets topped up — normally from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. That gap is where the mistake lives.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank happen in Westend?
It's seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Haste comes from the warning. Your car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a drive off M5, or on the way home in the car park at The Old Forge.
Then your car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new vehicle 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.
No part stops the tip once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Chipmans Platt or the heart of Westend: it is the same few seconds in both.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Look at these first, on a forecourt around Westend or a driveway out in Churchend. Seconds, no more.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Trust the cap, not its position.
- The size. On plenty of cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Lift the flap and look for a label — plenty of motors show what goes in each filler right there.
- Can't find it next to your diesel filler? In that case look beneath the bonnet or in the boot — the owner's manual says where.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Stonehouse.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
Wherever in Gloucestershire the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Stroudwater Interchange, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park and switch off first.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" out loud as unscrewing it. It sounds daft. It does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Discover during the second or third stage that AdBlue went in the diesel filler? That's where you stop. Never go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Westend?
The short order of things, beginning with not starting your engine. Keep your ignition off as well, because on many diesels switching it on alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is drawn from — so do not top up with diesel to thin it.
Ask the staff to help push the vehicle clear of the petrol pump if you are on a forecourt — the Shell, the Texaco or anywhere else. At home around Westend? Then the vehicle remains where it is.
When your motor has run already, pull over safely then turn the vehicle off. Westend sits under a mile from the M5; on it, use the next exit. Distance matters — a quick hop across Westend makes a smaller job than driving under 10 miles towards Gloucester — so say roughly how far it went.
When our engineers turn up around Westend, what happens?
By Great Oldbury Primary Academy, near Whitminster Village Hall or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, we come to it. We ask what went in, about how much, and whether it has run, because the answers decide this work and our price. On the call itself, you are told the quote — ahead of anything else.
The fuel system is then rinsed thoroughly, once the tank is drained. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Next we fire it up and confirm it runs properly before leaving.
With pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the engine has not run need about half an hour once our technicians arrive. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — so use the wait to check yours.
About Westend, briefly
Westend is a small hamlet in Gloucestershire, situated near the coast and close to the cities of Gloucester and Bristol. Westend sits at a low elevation of around 22 metres, with the Severn Estuary nearby. Westend is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its rural setting. Westend is part of a network of small settlements in the area, including Chipmans Platt, Nupend, and Whitminster.
AdBlue drains about Westend, and Gloucestershire beyond
Westend is a rural hamlet, and the vans that cover it also work the towns around it, Nupend and Whitminster among them, across the GL postcode area. Fastest of all: quote a GL10 3 postcode to our van.
No need to move the vehicle. Wherever it sits — near Saint Michaels and All Angels, on a lay-by en route to The Grove, at home — that's where it gets emptied. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Manor Farm.
The short version for Westend drivers
Read the cap before you tip. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it wherever it is, wherever in Gloucestershire: switch it off and phone 0333 366 0103.