AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Whiteway: Why It Occurs and How to Stop It
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then put this page down for now, keep the ignition and engine off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Whiteway. The rest of this page explains why it happens and how to ensure it does not — handy if you are reading ahead of time.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Diesel goes to your engine — but many modern diesels seen around Whiteway and The Oval hold another liquid as well. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There is a filler on each tank. Many of vehicles have a single flap for both, while others put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is topped up at the pump all the time. Rarely topped up, AdBlue usually goes in out of a bottle, poured by someone who must stop and think what filler to use. The mistake grows in the gap between them.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Whiteway: how it takes place
It's seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a drive off Haycombe Drive before work, or in the car park outside Trowbridge House on the way home: that is where the hurried top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and once it's gone, limp mode follows.
The old car's filler is where the hand goes — but a hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That's the second thing: a strange motor.
Lastly, the bottle goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in just as readily, and once the pour begins, nothing stops it. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Whiteway or out in Southdown.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Look at these before pouring, on a forecourt around Whiteway or a drive over in Twerton. Seconds, no more.
- Check the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue caps are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally are not.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- Lift the flap and check for a label — many vehicles show which belongs in each inlet just there.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by the diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Oldfield Park? Ask the person who drove the car last before leaving, not once the light goes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Somerset that is.
- Turn off after you park — level ground, motor stopped, and not in a rush beside The Hollow on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- The two behind a single flap? So make sure the lid on your diesel filler stays closed before raising the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the vehicle, close the cap and check a second time that the diesel cap never opened off.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Never carry on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Whiteway?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your engine. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels as soon as your ignition is switched on — so leave it off. Filling up with diesel will not thin it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the base of that tank, right where the fuel is drawn from.
Ask the attendants to help roll the car clear of the pump if you are at a forecourt — the Gulf, the Sainsbury's or somewhere else. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive in Whiteway.
Already started? Pull over once it's safe, then switch off. The next exit means the place to leave when you are on the M4, under 10 miles from Whiteway. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Bath, under 3 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Whiteway.
Whiteway: what happens when we arrive
Our van comes to the car wherever it stopped — your own drive, near Southdown Methodist Church, or by Roundhill Primary School. Both the work and our quote depend on three replies — what liquid, what amount, and if it has run — so our engineers ask. No one heads out before you've heard the price over the phone.
Your system is then cleaned thoroughly, once the tank is cleared. With AdBlue that counts 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. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. After that our technicians start the engine and make sure it runs correctly before we leave.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour after our technicians arrive, as long as the engine has not run — and the pumps our engineers use are safe on a busy forecourt yet quiet at night beside a house. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork your insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. While we travel, take a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Whiteway, for a moment
Whiteway is a suburban area located near the city of Bath in Somerset, England, sitting at an elevation of 114 metres. Whiteway is characterized by its semi-detached housing and is situated close to nearby places such as Southdown and South Twerton. Whiteway is also near Kingsway and is part of the larger urban area surrounding Bath. Whiteway has a population of approximately 6488 residents.
AdBlue drains across Somerset, Whiteway included
Whiteway is a residential suburb, and the teams that cover it also work the towns near it, South Twerton and Kingsway among them, across the BA postcode area. A postcode starting BA2 1 gets the van to you fastest.
Shifting the vehicle is not needed. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Whiteway Green, a side street near St Barnabas: we drain it where it stands. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Bath City Farm, ring and ask instead of guessing.
In short, for Whiteway motorists
Read the cap before you pour. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere around Somerset, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless — and so leave the car off and ring 0333 366 0103.