Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Withywood: Why It Happens
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then set this page down a moment, leave the ignition and motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Withywood. The rest of this page covers why it occurs and how to ensure it doesn't — useful if you're reading before it has happened.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Many modern diesels around Dundry, like those in Withywood, carry on two fluids; your motor gets just the diesel. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, side by side: that's the layout on many motors. On others, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in the boot instead. The diesel side is topped up at the pump all the time. Far less regularly, the AdBlue side is topped up — mostly from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. It's in that gap that the error happens.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Withywood: how it occurs
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from the car, and letting it run out leads to limp mode — so a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Three Wells Road, perhaps at The Queens Head on the way home that evening.
Next, the hand goes for the cap it knew on the old car — since a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
Third, the bottle fits: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in as easily, and once the tip begins, nothing stops it. It takes seconds, be it out in Bishopsworth or bang in the centre of Withywood.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Look at these first, on a forecourt in Withywood or a driveway over in Maiden Head. Seconds, no more.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally isn't. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- On many vehicles, the size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Look inside the fuel flap: many motors have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- Can't see it next to your diesel inlet? In that case check below the bonnet or inside the boot — the handbook says which.
- The previous driver will know. Check when you collect a hire car or company car — from Parson Street's car park, perhaps — not once the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
For the day the warning appears — anywhere it is across Bristol — a simple routine to use.
- Pull in somewhere level, engine off, with time in hand — never rushing on the side of Riverland Drive.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- The diesel cap stays on. When the two share a flap, make sure it's shut before the bottle comes up.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Before starting the vehicle, close the cap and look a second time that the diesel cap was never came off.
Spot at stage two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? So stop right there. Never go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Withywood?
Brief order, then. Top of it: the engine stays unstarted. Do not switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel won't thin it: instead, AdBlue drops to the base of your tank, just where the fuel is drawn from.
The staff at Morrisons, Shell or another forecourt will normally help to push your car clear when asked. If you are on your own driveway in Withywood, leave it where it stands.
Already run? Pull over once it's safe, then turn off. On the M32, under 5 miles from Withywood, that means the next exit. About how far did it go? Crossing Withywood is smaller work than a run of under 5 miles to Bristol, so tell us.
Our arrival in Withywood, and what occurs next
Wherever the car came to rest, be it outside Four Acres Academy, near Withywood Church or on your own drive, our van comes to it. Those replies determine this work and the quote, and so our engineers ask what got in, roughly how much, and if it has run. You hear that quote on the phone, before anybody sets off.
Next: draining, then a thorough flush of the entire system. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and none of it clears out by itself. Hence it counts more. The filter flushed or, where needed, swapped; fresh diesel in; then a test of your vehicle. We do not leave until it has been started and is running properly.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour once our technicians get there, as long as the engine has not run — and the pumps we use are fine on a live forecourt yet quiet at night beside a house. No money in advance; you settle up on the day. At the end, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. It's worth checking your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Withywood, briefly
Withywood is a suburban area in Bristol, situated near the River Avon and characterised by its semi-detached housing stock. Withywood sits at an elevation of 62 metres, approximately 3.2 miles from Bristol city centre, and is surrounded by nearby places such as Bishopsworth and Highridge. Withywood is home to a population of around 7640 residents, who enjoy easy access to the city and its amenities. Withywood's riverside setting provides a pleasant environment for its inhabitants.
AdBlue drains around Withywood and across Bristol
Throughout BS postcodes, our vans that cover Withywood — a residential suburb — work the nearby spots too, Uplands and Highridge included. Quickest of all: give a BS13 8 postcode for our van.
There's no need to shift the vehicle. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street close to St Pius X Catholic Church, a lay-by on the way to Withywood Park, a drive. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of St Peter.
For Withywood motorists, the short version
Tip nothing till you have read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere across Bristol, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — so leave it off then ring 0333 366 0103.