AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Whiteway: How It Happens and How to Prevent It
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case put this page down a moment, leave your ignition and engine off, and call 0333 366 0103. Usually, if the engine hasn't run, it's emptied and fully rinsed where your vehicle sits around Whiteway. Reading before the event? Then what follows covers how it comes about and what to prevent it happening at all.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Plenty of modern diesels around Chester Park, as well as Whiteway, carry on two liquids; your motor takes only the diesel. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, where spraying cleans the fumes.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Other motors put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others have both together under one flap. Diesel goes in on each forecourt visit, week in, week out. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less often, normally from a bottle, and normally by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the error lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank happens around Whiteway
Carelessness rarely causes it. Instead is three things lining up at once.
On a driveway off Maldowers Lane before work, or in the car park at Mechanics Arm on the way home: that's where the rushed top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the car warns you, and if it is empty, limp mode kicks in.
Then, the hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old car — since a hire car, a new car or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
Nothing halts the tip after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it occurs in Burchells Green or the middle of Whiteway, it is the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A couple of seconds is all these take — so check them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Two Mile Hill or a forecourt around Whiteway.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally isn't. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on many cars. Look for it.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by the diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Lawrence Hill? Ask the person who drove the car last before leaving, not when the light goes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
When the light goes on, wherever around Bristol, use this routine.
- Switch off once parked — level ground, motor off, and never in a rush by Dale Street on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew it. It seems silly. It does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the vehicle 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 car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Discover during the second or third stage that AdBlue went into the diesel filler? That is where you stop. Never go on to stage five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Whiteway?
Short list, then. Top of that: your motor remains unstarted. Don't switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Diluting it with extra diesel fails, since AdBlue settles to the base instead of blending — and that is where the fuel is drawn from.
Ask the staff to help roll the car clear of the pump if you are at a forecourt — the Texaco, the Saintsbury's or anywhere else. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway around Whiteway.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the motor has already run. On the M32, under 3 miles from Whiteway, that means the next exit. Distance matters — a short hop across Whiteway is a smaller job than driving under 5 miles to Bristol — so tell us roughly how far it went.
Our arrival around Whiteway, and what occurs next
Our van comes to the car anywhere it stopped — your own drive, near Meadow Vale Community Centre, or outside Air Balloon Hill Primary School. Both the work and the quote depend on three replies — which liquid, which quantity, and if it has run — so our engineers ask. You get that price by phone, before anyone sets off.
Then the tank is drained and the system purged thoroughly. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and neither washes out by itself. Hence it matters more. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Next we start the engine and make sure it runs smoothly before we leave.
Using pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the engine has not run take roughly half an hour after our technicians are there. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Before we get there, take a look at your insurance documents; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Whiteway
Whiteway is a village located inland in the county of Bristol, sitting at an elevation of 78 metres and approximately 3 miles from the city of Bristol. Whiteway is surrounded by nearby places such as Burchells Green, Crofts End, and Speedwell, and is characterized by its predominantly terraced housing. Whiteway has a population of around 6160 residents and is situated in the South West region of England, about 103.5 miles west of London.
AdBlue drains across Bristol, Whiteway included
Over BS postcodes, the vans covering Whiteway — a rural village — work the surrounding locations too, Speedwell and Crofts End among them. A postcode starting BS5 7 gets the van to you fastest.
Moving the vehicle isn't necessary. The drain happens on the spot, be it a drive, a street by Sumerhill Methodist Church, or a layby towards Meadow Vale Park. Awkward to explain, like the back of Speedwell Chapel? Close to a county line? Checking is better than guessing, and so ring.
In short, for Whiteway people
Before you pour, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless, leave it off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it sits, anywhere around Bristol.