AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Widham: Why It Happens and How to Avoid It
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then put this page aside for now, keep your ignition and motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. Around Widham, catching it before the motor runs usually leaves a drain and a full flush where it stands. Not happened yet? Below, the page covers the why it happens and the ways to avoid it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Not one fluid but two: that is how plenty of newer diesels around Widham and Church End run, with diesel for the motor. Your exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the gas to clean them, from its own tank.
There's a filler for every tank. Under one flap, side by side: that is the layout on a lot of cars. On others, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. Diesel goes in at each forecourt visit, week in, week out. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less regularly, usually from a bottle, and usually by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. The error lives in that gap.
Widham: how AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs
Carelessness seldom explains it. Instead is three things coming up together.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from your car, and running dry means limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Vasterne Hill, perhaps outside The Angel on the way home that evening.
Unfamiliar vehicles are second, as well. Rentals, new vehicles and company vehicles place their fillers in new places, and habit reaches for the cap used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, after begun, keeps on. Whether it occurs in Purton Common or the middle of Widham, it's the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
A few seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Restrop or a forecourt around Widham.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Check inside the fuel flap: many vehicles have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- Cannot find it beside your diesel filler? In that case check beneath the bonnet or in your boot — the handbook says where.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Swindon, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Wiltshire that is.
- Switch off once parked — flat ground, engine off, and not rushed beside Witts Lane on the verge.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you have found your filler and read the cap.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your 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 a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Find at the second or third stage that the bottle went into the wrong tank? That's where you stop. Stage five is out.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Widham?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your motor. Leave the ignition off too, because on many diesels switching it on by itself starts your fuel pump. Diluting it with more diesel fails, because AdBlue settles to the base rather than mixing — and that's where the fuel is sucked from.
The attendants at Shell, Asda or any forecourt will normally lend a hand to push the vehicle away when asked. On your own drive in Widham? So your car stays put.
Already started? Pull over once it's safe, then switch off. Widham lies under 3 miles from the M4; there, use the first junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Gloucester, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Widham.
When our technicians get there in Widham, what happens?
Anywhere the vehicle has stopped, whether by St Mary's Church of England Primary School & Nursery, Purton, beside Purton Village Hall or on your own drive, our van comes to it. Both the work and the quote depend on three answers — which liquid, which quantity, and whether it has run — so our engineers ask. The price comes over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
Emptying your tank comes next, then a thorough flush of your system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and none of that clears out by itself. That is why it matters more. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. We don't go until it has been fired up and is running properly.
Unrun cars usually need a half-hour job after the moment we arrive. The equipment is fine on a busy forecourt, and hushed enough for a residential street late at night. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork your insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Widham itself
Widham is a suburban area in Wiltshire, situated inland at an elevation of 93 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Widham lies approximately 75 miles west of London and 25 miles east of Gloucester, near the communities of Purton Common and Purton. Widham has a population of around 1638 residents, living in a relatively quiet area surrounded by countryside. Widham is also close to the settlement of Dogridge, sharing a similar rural setting.
AdBlue drains around Widham and across Wiltshire
As a residential suburb, Widham has the same vans as nearby areas — Purton, Dogridge — right across SN postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. A postcode starting SN5 4 gets the van to you fastest.
The car does not need to move. Draining takes place right there, be it a drive, a street near Purton Museum, or a layby on the way to Millennium Garden. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Purton Library.
For Widham people, the short version
Read the cap before you tip. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it wherever it stands, anywhere in Wiltshire: keep the car off and ring 0333 366 0103.