Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Westford
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and the ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103. In Westford, catching it before your motor turns usually means a drain and a thorough flush on the spot. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Many newer diesels around Tonedale, like those in Westford, carry on two liquids; your engine gets only your diesel. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it.
Each tank has its own filler. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Topping up your diesel side at the pump happens constantly. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less frequently. The mistake lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place around Westford
Carelessness rarely explains it. What does is three things coming up together.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from the car, and running out means limp mode — so a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Westford Court, perhaps outside The Dolphin on the way home after work.
Then your car is new. 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.
No part stops the pour once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It's a few seconds, whether in Rockwell Green or right in the centre of Westford.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Whether a Westford forecourt or a driveway over in Tone, take a few seconds over these before anything is poured in.
- Position misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually do not.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many cars, the AdBlue one.
- Open the flap and look for a label — plenty of vehicles show what goes in each filler right there.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't 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 Tiverton Parkway, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
Anywhere across Somerset the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Rackfield.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you've found your filler and read the cap.
- The two behind one flap? So make sure the cap on the diesel filler stays shut ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Stop once your tank fills or the bottle is empty; before that, pour slowly through the built-in spout.
- Only after that, start the car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Discover at the second or third step that the bottle went into the wrong tank? That's where you stop. Step five is off limits.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Westford?
Brief order, then. Top of it: your engine remains unstarted. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch it on. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is sucked from — so do not top up with diesel to thin it.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it is the BP or the Esso, ask the staff to help roll the vehicle away from the petrol pump. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive in Westford.
When the motor has been run already, pull over somewhere safe then turn the vehicle off. Come off the M5 — under 3 miles out of Westford — at the first junction. About how far did it go? Hopping across Westford is less a job than a run of under 25 miles towards Exeter, so tell us.
What happens when our engineers get there in Westford
The van reaches the vehicle wherever it has come to rest — your own driveway, beside Rockwell Green Christian Centre, or outside Rockwell Green Church of England Primary School. Our technicians ask what got in, about how much, and whether it's run, because those replies decide the work and our quote. During the phone call itself, you hear the price — before anything else.
Emptying the tank comes next, followed by a full flush of the fuel system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more here than with petrol. A test comes at the end: before that, fresh diesel is added, and the filter is cleaned or changed as needed. Before leaving, our engineers start the car and make sure that it is running smoothly.
With pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where your engine has not run need roughly half an hour once our engineers arrive. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork an insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. It's worth looking at your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Westford itself
Westford is a village situated in a riverside setting in Somerset, with a mix of detached housing and a population of around 1158 residents. Westford lies near the villages of Rockwell Green, Payton, and Bagley Green, and is approximately 21 miles from Exeter. Westford's elevation is around 65 metres above sea level, and it is located in the South West region of England, about 140 miles from London. Westford remains a small, rural community with a strong sense of local identity.
AdBlue drains in Westford and across Somerset
Over TA postcodes, the vans covering Westford — a village — work the surrounding locations too, Bagley Green and Payton among them. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting TA21 0.
The vehicle does not need to shift. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Westford Community Woodland, a side street close to Rockwell Green Village Hall: our technicians drain the vehicle where it stands. Guessing won't help at the back of All Saints, on a boundary, or somewhere awkward to describe; phone and ask.
Westford drivers: the short version
Read the cap before you pour. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it where it stands, anywhere around Somerset: keep the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103.