Wick: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Leave the engine and ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Normally, if the motor has not turned, it is emptied and fully purged where your car sits in Wick. Here in advance? In that case the rest explains why it happens and what to stop it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Plenty of modern diesels in Morgans Vale, as well as Wick, run on two fluids; the motor takes only the diesel. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, where spraying treats the gas.
Each tank comes with a filler of its own. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. Topping up your diesel side at the pump happens all the time. Far less regularly, the AdBlue side gets topped up — mostly from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. The mistake lives in that gap.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Wick: how it takes place
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
On a driveway off Wick Lane before work, or in the car park at The Bull Hotel heading home: that's where the rushed top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low the car tells you, and once it is empty, limp mode follows.
New-to-you vehicles are next, as well. Hire cars, new cars and company vehicles put their fillers differently, and the hand goes for the cap used on the old one.
No part stops the tip after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Downton or the heart of Wick: it takes the same few seconds in both.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Look at these before pouring, on a forecourt around Wick or a driveway out in Breamore. Seconds, that's all.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally do not.
- On plenty of vehicles, size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside the fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Check for it.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by your diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at Salisbury, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
Anywhere in Wiltshire the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Weeke Close.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" aloud while unscrewing it. It sounds daft. It does the trick.
- The two behind a single flap? So confirm the lid on your diesel filler is still shut ahead of raising the bottle.
- Stop once the tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; before that, tip gently using the own spout.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Find during the second or third step that AdBlue went into the wrong tank? That's where you stop. Don't go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Wick already?
Brief list, then. Top of it: the motor remains unstarted. Leave the ignition off as well, because on plenty of diesels it by itself starts the pump. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is sucked from.
At a forecourt — Esso, BP or any other — the staff will normally help push your car clear, when you ask. Your own driveway in Wick is where it stays.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. On the M27, under 10 miles from Wick, that means the next junction. About how far did it go? Crossing Wick is smaller a job than a run of under 10 miles to Salisbury, so tell us.
Wick: what happens when our engineers arrive
Our engineers come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Downton CofE VA Primary School, near Downton Leisure Centre or on your own drive. Both the work and our price rest on three answers — which fluid, what quantity, and whether it's run — so our technicians ask. The price is given on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
After that: draining, then a full flush of the entire system. More than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: the crystals form, certain metals corrode, and none of it washes away on its own, no matter how long it is left. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. The motor is started next and checked to be sure it runs correctly, all before our engineers head off.
With pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your engine hasn't run need about half an hour once we arrive. Nothing upfront; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. While we travel, take a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Wick, for a moment
Wick is a suburban area in Wiltshire, situated inland at an elevation of 44 metres, approximately 5.5 miles from Salisbury. Wick lies within the wider Salisbury urban area, near neighbouring communities such as Downton and Charlton All Saints. Wick has a population of around 1198 people, predominantly living in detached housing. Wick is also relatively close to other local areas, including North Street.
AdBlue drains across Wiltshire, Wick included
Being a residential suburb, Wick shares its vans surrounding places — Charlton All Saints, North Street — right across SP postcodes and the surrounding area around them. A postcode starting SP5 3 gets the van to you fastest.
The car remains put. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to The Nut Row, a side street near Downton Memorial Hall: we drain the vehicle where it stands. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Downton Baptist Church.
The short version for Wick people
Read the cap before you pour. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it wherever it is, anywhere across Wiltshire: keep it off then call 0333 366 0103.