Wilton: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and your ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, done just where your car stands around Wilton, is usually all it takes when found before the engine runs. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page explains the why it happens and the ways to avoid it altogether.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Diesel goes to your engine — but many modern diesels seen around Wilton and Sherford hold a second fluid as well. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust stream to clean it.
Every tank comes with one filler of its own. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the layout on many vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. Diesel goes in on each filling station visit, week in, week out. Rarely filled, AdBlue usually goes in from a bottle, tipped by a driver who must stop and think what cap it needs. The mistake grows in the gap between them.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank happens in Wilton
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
Hurry comes from the warning. Your car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a drive off Fons George, or heading home in the car park outside The Vivary Arms.
Then, the hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old motor — because a rental car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not.
Lastly, the spout goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in just as readily, and after the tip starts, no part stops it. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Wilton or out in Haines Hill.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Look at these before pouring, on a forecourt in Wilton or a driveway out in Galmington. A few seconds, that's all.
- Position misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually do not.
- The size. On plenty of motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Look for it.
- Can't find it next to your diesel filler? In that case check below the bonnet or in the boot — the owner's manual says where.
- Whoever had it before will know. Check when you collect a hire car or fleet car — from Taunton's car park, perhaps — not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
The day the light comes on, wherever across Somerset, use this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Wilton Street, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park and switch off first.
- 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 confirm the cap on your diesel filler stays shut before lifting the bottle.
- Finish once the tank fills or the bottle is empty; before that, pour slowly through its own spout.
- Only then, start the car: close the cap, check again, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Find during the second or third step that the bottle went into the diesel filler? That's where you stop. Leave out step five altogether.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Wilton?
Don't start your motor: that is how the short order of things begins. Keep your ignition off too, since on plenty of diesels it by itself runs the pump. Diluting it with extra diesel fails, since AdBlue sinks to the base rather than mixing — and that is where your fuel is pulled from.
On a forecourt — Sainsbury's, Esso or another — the staff will normally help push the car away, when you ask. If you are on your own driveway in Wilton, leave it where it sits.
Already started? Pull over when it is safe, then turn off. Come off the M5 — under 3 miles out of Wilton — at the next junction. About how far did it go? Crossing Wilton is less a job than a trip of under 25 miles to Wells, so say.
What occurs when our engineers turn up in Wilton
Our engineers come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Parkfield Primary School, near St Georges Church or on your own drive. Those replies settle the work and the quote, and so our technicians ask what was put in, about how much, and if it's run. Nobody heads out before you've heard our quote by phone.
Then the tank is cleared and the system cleaned thoroughly. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own. Once your filter is cleaned — or renewed, if required — clean diesel goes in, and then the vehicle is tested. We don't leave until it has been fired up and is running smoothly.
Using pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where your motor hasn't run need roughly half an hour after our technicians arrive. The insurer usually wants the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — and so use the wait to look at yours.
About Wilton
Wilton is a suburban area in Somerset, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 34 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Wilton lies near the towns of Taunton and Wells, and is close to other nearby places such as Haines Hill and Tangier. Wilton is located in the South West region of England, approximately 133 miles from London. Wilton has a population of around 4105 residents.
AdBlue drains across Somerset, Wilton included
Being a residential suburb, Wilton has the same vans as surrounding areas — Taunton, Tangier — all the way across TA postcodes and the wider area beyond. Quickest of all: give a TA1 3 postcode to the van.
There's no need to move the car. The drain happens right there, be it a drive, a street by Kingdom Hall, or a lay-by towards Wilton Lands. Guessing won't help at the back of Normandy stone, on a border, or anywhere awkward to pin down; ring and check.
Wilton drivers: the short version
First, the cap; after that, the pour. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave it off and call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it sits, anywhere around Somerset.