Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Whatley
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then put this page down for now, leave your ignition and motor off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Whatley. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Many modern diesels in Langport Westover, like those in Whatley, run on two liquids; your engine takes only the diesel. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, where a spray cleans the fumes.
Different tanks, different fillers. Other cars keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot more place the two together under one flap. Topping up the diesel side at the pump happens constantly. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less regularly, usually from a bottle, and usually by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank happen in Whatley?
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
Haste follows from the warning. Your car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a drive off Whatley Lane, or on the way home in the car park outside Langport Arms Hotel.
The old car's cap is where the hand goes — yet a rental car, a new car or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That's the second thing: an unfamiliar motor.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the tip after it has started. Langport Eastover or the middle of Whatley: it takes the same few seconds in both.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Be it a Whatley forecourt or a driveway out in Garden City, take a couple of seconds on these before any goes in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually isn't. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- On plenty of motors, size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Check inside your fuel flap: plenty of motors carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler is if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Bridgwater.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
When the light goes on, wherever in Somerset, follow this routine.
- Switch off once parked — flat ground, engine stopped, and not in a rush beside Bow Street on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Find at stage two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? Then stop right there. Skip stage five entirely.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Whatley already?
Do not start your motor: that is how the short order of things begins. Leave the ignition off too, since on many diesels switching it on by itself starts the fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is drawn from.
The staff at Esso, BP or any forecourt will usually lend a hand pushing your car clear when you ask. At home around Whatley? So your car stays where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the motor has already run. Whatley lies under 10 miles from the M5; on it, take the next junction. A short hop across Whatley is a smaller job than a run towards Wells, under 15 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
Our arrival in Whatley, and what happens next
Anywhere your car came to rest, be it by Huish Episcopi Primary School, beside Langport Library or at home, our van travels to it. Both the work and the quote depend on three replies — which liquid, which amount, and whether it's run — so we ask. During the call itself, you hear our price — ahead of anything else.
Emptying that tank comes next, then a thorough flush of your system. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own. Once your filter has been cleaned — or renewed, where required — clean diesel goes in, and finally the car gets tested. After that our engineers start it and check it runs correctly before we go.
Using pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the engine hasn't run need about half an hour after we arrive. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork an insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Before we get there, take a look at your policy; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Whatley itself
Whatley is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Somerset, with a low elevation of around 10 metres. Whatley lies near the towns of Langport and Wells, and is surrounded by other nearby places such as Langport Eastover and Huish Episcopi. Whatley has a population of approximately 1394 residents, living in predominantly semi-detached housing. Whatley is located 121.2 miles west of London, in the South West region of England.
AdBlue drains across Somerset, Whatley included
Throughout TA postcodes, the teams that cover Whatley — a residential suburb — work the surrounding places too, Huish Episcopi and Langport included. A postcode starting TA10 9 gets our van to you fastest.
The car does not need to shift. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near Langport Town Council, a lay-by on the way to Park Triangle Plantation, a drive. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Church of All Saints, ring and ask rather than assuming.
Whatley drivers: the short version
Read the cap before you pour. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway, leave the car off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere in Somerset.