Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Wheatenhurst: Why It Occurs
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and your ignition off and call 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Wheatenhurst. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Many modern diesels in Saul, like those in Wheatenhurst, carry on two liquids; the motor gets just your diesel. The exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the gas to fresh them, from its own tank.
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. At the petrol pump, your diesel side is topped up all the time. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less frequently, usually from a bottle, and usually by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank take place in Wheatenhurst?
Carelessness seldom explains it. What does is three things coming up at once.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from the car, and letting it run dry leads to limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off EWH23, perhaps at The Old Forge on the way home after work.
Next, the hand goes for the cap it knew on the old car — since a hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't.
Lastly, the spout fits: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in as readily, and after the tip starts, no part stops it. It's seconds, whether in Whitminster or bang in the centre of Wheatenhurst.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Whether a Wheatenhurst forecourt or a driveway over in Moreton Valence, take a few seconds over these before anything goes in.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- On plenty of cars, the size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Lift the filler flap and look for a label — plenty of vehicles mark which goes in each filler right there.
- Cannot find it next to your diesel inlet? In that case look below the bonnet or in your boot — the owner's manual will say which.
- 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 Stonehouse.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
Wherever around Gloucestershire the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Stop on level, motor off, with time in hand — never hurried on the side of Schoolfield Close.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, perhaps, but it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check once more, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Stage five is out.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Wheatenhurst?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with not starting your engine. Leave the ignition off too, since on many diesels it by itself runs your fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it's the Texaco or the Shell, ask the staff to help push your car away from the petrol pump. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive around Wheatenhurst.
Already run? Stop when it's safe, then switch off. The next junction is where to come off if you are on the M5, under 3 miles from Wheatenhurst. A short hop across Wheatenhurst is a smaller job than a run towards Gloucester, under 10 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
What happens when our engineers arrive around Wheatenhurst
Wherever your car came to rest, be it outside Whitminster Endowed Church of England Primary School, beside Saint Andrew or at home, the van comes to it. Both the work and our price depend on three answers — which liquid, which amount, and if it's run — so our engineers ask. No one sets off until you have heard the quote over the phone.
After that: draining, then a thorough flush of the whole system. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and neither clears away by itself. That is why it counts more. Once your filter is cleaned — or replaced, where needed — fresh diesel is added, and then your car is tested. Your engine is started next and checked to make sure it runs properly, all before we head off.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour once our engineers get there, as long as the motor has not run — and the pumps we use are fine on a busy forecourt yet quiet at night beside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is part of many insurance policies — so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Wheatenhurst itself
Wheatenhurst is a locality in Gloucestershire, situated near the coast and close to the cities of Gloucester and Bristol. Wheatenhurst lies at a low elevation of around 12 metres, near the Severn Estuary, and is surrounded by other small settlements like Whitminster and Frampton on Severn. Wheatenhurst has a population of approximately 592 people, predominantly living in detached houses.
Wheatenhurst and Gloucestershire: AdBlue drains across the area
Fromebridge and Frampton on Severn are among the towns around Wheatenhurst, a coastal area, that the same vans cover, over GL postcodes. Fastest of all: give a GL2 7 postcode to our van.
There's no need to shift the car. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street close to Whitminster Village Hall, a lay-by on the way to Netherhills Covert, a driveway. Tricky to explain, like the back of Saint James the Great? Close to a county line? Checking beats guessing, and so phone.
In short, for Wheatenhurst motorists
First, the cap; after that, the tip. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere around Gloucestershire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless — so leave it off then call 0333 366 0103.