Nipped out to Halford's earlier for a couple of additions to the Roomie's on board toolkit.
As might be expected they're now selling Jerry cans of AdBlue. Laminated message taped do display says:
AdBlue is a necessity in certain newer cars, this is not a replacement for oil
Are there really people that stupid.......
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That's pretty impressive if people have managed that.
How much adblue do you get through brompt ?
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>> How much adblue do you get through brompt ?
My careless drafting strikes again. I was in Halford's buying tools - spanners to fill gaps in set I carry in car.
Roomie is 2011 so no need for adblue.
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E220 seems pretty consistent in its use of AdBlue. 10 litres every 13,000 miles. But, it gets serviced every 15,000 and topped up then, so I've got into the habit of chucking 5 litres in about 10,000 miles after a service. Seems to work.
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I take it 10 litres as the capacity of the adblue tank?
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Yes, it is. And in my car, it's where the spare wheel should be. :-(
Last edited by: Runfer D'Hills on Sun 1 Apr 18 at 19:17
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We've got a van at work with ad blue, hardly ever needs topping. The spout is next to the fuel, I take its like that on yours? To go back to the OP, I can't see how oil and ad blue would get mixed up?
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I think the newer models have the AdBlue filler next to the fuel filler, but mine was one of the last of the previous version and I suspect it was all done in a bit of a rush as a modification. The filler is actually under the boot floor. Just a screw top really into a tank that occupies what should be the spare wheel well. Pain in the proverbial if it needs filling when you're miles from home with a full boot.
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Does yours have a gauge for it? We're told to check it regularly but there's only a warning light when its low.
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>> Does yours have a gauge for it?
No, just a scary message that comes up on the dash. But, I've sort of got used to when it's due, so as I mentioned above, I just put some in when I know it'll not overflow.
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>> AdBlue filler next to the fuel filler<<
With that and the fact that the AdBlue pump stands next to the diesel pump at most haulage firms, quite a few have managed to put AdBlue in the diesel tank.
Pat
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Did they run with the contamination, if so what damage was done?
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The times it's happened to us it has always been in our yard so has been noticed when the nozzle is removed and parked back in the wrong pump.
The tank has always had to be drained.
Pat
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>> The times it's happened to us it has always been in our yard so has
>> been noticed when the nozzle is removed and parked back in the wrong pump.
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Has anything been done to try and stop it from reoccurring, change of pump colour, location of the pumps, warnings etc?
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Yes, disciplinary and the Agency driver was told never to come back again.
Nothing other than that should be needed.
If drivers have enough common sense to do the job and pay attention to their driving, they shouldn't leave that common sense behind at the yard gate.
Pat
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Human factors not made its presence felt everywhere yet.
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>> To go back to the OP, I can't see how oil and ad blue would get mixed up?
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A friend of mine, who knows absolutely nothing about cars put water in the oil filler after his car overheated. Not only that but he kept pouring till he could see the water "Reach the correct level". Luckily he realised before he started the car, but it was a tow to the garage and a decent bill.
An old colleague of mine complained his handbrake light was coming on when he went up a steep hill. I explained his brake fluid was low and got him a bottle from the local garage. I had to show him where the resevoir was as he did not even know it was under the bonnet, something I discovered when he asked if he needed to take a wheel off or was it near the pedal?
As strange as it may seem to a forum of petrolheads most drivers know next to nothing about the workings of their cars, more so now among the young as cars are so much more reliable and when something does go wrong it is no longer a case of lifting up the bonnet and finding everything easily identifiable and simple to reach. No excuse for not knowing about the fluids, but lack of practice on what used to be regular fettling leads to complete lack of interest.
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No i get that and there'll always be people that need it all doing for them. I just thinking oil doesn't go in near the fuel on any car, or any adblue filled up from under the bonnet?
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I once was asked if my daughter's car should have a service before they went abroad, no I replied, have it done when you get back.
Turns out it hadn't been done for yonks and when I looked at the poor beast the oil level was beyond the bottom of the dipstick. I poured in the litre of oil I had and brought it up to somewhere below the min on the dipstick!
She called to ask me to change a wheel. Turns out it was because husband had called out (AA/RAC) a few days previous for the same reason and they didn't want to incur excess charges. I and the tyre technician pointed their disc pads were dangerously low.
Cost them just shy of a grand for service, pads and discs!
That's your average motorist
Last edited by: bathtub tom on Sun 1 Apr 18 at 23:09
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Youngest 2 kids shared a car @ Uni (I bought it). I needed to move car, switched it on - radio blares. I put radio off only to hear running water. Lifted bonnet, no sign of water in radiator, filled up with water & anti-freeze. They had never checked water/oil & having never switched the radio off they did not hear the "running water noise".
This was a 18 mth old Astra (ex Hertz) bought for them some 12 months before - leaking radiator fixed - it went on to do 90+K miles in 6 yrs before being sold.
Other than servicing, tyres etc etc it cost next to £0 in repairs but it might have needed an engine.
20 years on - do they check levels now? - most probably not but "the computer" will tell them, hopefully!
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'That's your average motorist'
And they are out there mixing it with the rest of us on the motorways. :(
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I noticed the other day that Costco is selling adblue in 5l. containers. I can't remember the price but it was cheaper than concentrated screenwash which is £6 for 5l. So cheap I wanted to buy some, but I'd have had to buy a new car to go with it.
The other thing that surprised me was that it isn't blue.
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>> The other thing that surprised me was that it isn't blue.
Strangely car makers have coined the term "blue" for being "green"
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>> Strangely car makers have coined the term "blue" for being "green"
I believe that's a German thing. 'Die Grunen' being big enough to have been in government in past Green is seen a conveying a political message/
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>>The other thing that surprised me was that it isn't blue.
I find that vaguely disappointing. What colour is it?
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Adblue is colourless.
Considering what it is, surely a pleasing deep yellow tint would be appropriate.
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>> Adblue is colourless.
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>> Considering what it is, surely a pleasing deep yellow tint would be appropriate.
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Redex used to be a pleasing red, back in the days when we had to faff around using additives in cars. It's so much easier now. :)
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I think the natural stuff has special additives to achieve the colour.
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>> I think the natural stuff has special additives to achieve the colour.
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.....Wetherspoonium.......?
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>> >> I think the natural stuff has special additives to achieve the colour.
>> >>
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>> .....Wetherspoonium.......?
Ginium2tonicon
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Just to clarify
''AdBlue is not animal urine, we've heard them all over the years, cow urine, pig urine, the craziest one was fish urine (we're still not sure exactly how you would harvest that).
AdBlue is actually a high purity chemically produced carbamide solution dissolved in a high purity de-ionised water.
Anything other than a high purity solution will cause the porous head of the SCR to fail just like limescale would in a kettle. Putting urine from any species into your machines AdBlue tank would cause irreversible damage to the SCR.''
Pat
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....and there's me, all these years, thinking that the yellow bottles the lorry drivers throw out is the surplus from an AdBlue fill-up.......
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I've heard that it's seen as really bad form to use an empty Irn-Bru or Lucozade bottle for the above implied purpose...
:-(
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>> I've heard that it's seen as really bad form to use an empty Irn-Bru or
>> Lucozade bottle for the above implied purpose...
>> :-(
>>
Road-kill champagne to wash down the road-kill pheasant?
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Adblue is an aqueous solution of the chemical called urea which is also known as carbamide and widely used as a fertiliser
I'm sure it wouldn't do your car any good but urine is also mainly a solution of urea which is how the body gets rids of the harmful waste product ammonia. It also contains other stuff like orobolin which give it its pretty colour.
Last edited by: CGNorwich on Mon 2 Apr 18 at 18:17
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iirc Adblue is around 30% urea in water.
Urine is 3-5% so wouldn't work anyway.
While we would never think of sticking pee into our cars, no such compunction exists when it comes to human females.
Early HRT was made from horse wee.
Even the name gave it away: Premarin (PREgnant MAre uRINe)
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>> While we would never think of sticking pee into our cars, no such compunction exists
>> when it comes to human females.
>>
Whilst that post didn't go anywhere good, it wasn't as bad as I feared it was going to be.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Mon 2 Apr 18 at 19:01
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>> I'm not b***** German!
well we can work out your browser history, no need to put spyware on your machine....
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>> As strange as it may seem to a forum of petrolheads most drivers know next
>> to nothing about the workings of their cars, more so now among the young as
>> cars are so much more reliable and when something does go wrong it is no
>> longer a case of lifting up the bonnet and finding everything easily identifiable and simple
>> to reach. No excuse for not knowing about the fluids, but lack of practice on
>> what used to be regular fettling leads to complete lack of interest.
I have moved with cars from the time I would change my own "made from cheese" Ford OH camshaft as a matter of course, to a car where I can do nothing. It has no dipstick, I can't tell the oil level, check its colour, smell it. The car will tell me when its time to change. There is a (complex) way to electronically find the level, but one is specifically warned from using it to top up, instructions to wait until notified.
This applies to most of the "weekly check" type stuff. There is no point lifting my bonnet, can't see anything to do anything unless it tells me.
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My car uses AdBlue, filling point in the boot.
Cars are that complex now you need computer gear to have an in- depth check.
I do check oil level scree washers and a general look under the bonnet if nothing is adrift.
Tyre check and that is about it.
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>> This applies to most of the "weekly check" type stuff. There is no point lifting my bonnet, can't see anything to do anything unless it tells me.
Welcome to the world of EVs
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>> Welcome to the world of EVs
No, You're welcome to the world of EVs! Fine vehicles, possibly, if you can afford the likes of a Tesla Model S or X but nothing we have really has the sort of range that I would be happy with, nor want to live with.
The continual anxiety of could I make this journey or that one without sticking to the Motorway network system or visiting town centres where I may be lucky enough to find a charger of one type or another, doesn't appeal. If I lived in Norway (perish the cold thought) or the US then that's different with their excellent charging networks.
Last edited by: VxFan on Thu 5 Apr 18 at 10:14
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I do get the range anxiety thing and that's what prevented me getting a full EV for now. But there are in-between options.
For instance my car (Vauxhall Ampera) has the same range as a petrol car yet is fully electric for the first 30 - 50 miles (or you can "hold" the electricity and use the petrol engine, saving the electricity for a more efficient time), then the petrol engines kicks in to drive the electric motors. It's not the only one like that.
I've used 11 gallons of fuel since buying it in July last year, admittedly only on a mileage so far of about 3k. There are plenty on the car-specific forum which I use whose commute is within electric range, and/or they can charge at work, and who do considerably more miles on electricity only. For many people the bulk of their day to day mileage would be within range.
The car even knows when the engine hasn't been run for a while and gives it a blast through - for the benefit of both the engine and to use up petrol which may become "stale".
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Needless to say we are a 2 car household.
Currently staying in Chorley on the return leg of our holiday to Cambridge and London.
Have averaged 40.5mpg in the Frv petrol auto over the 700ish miles helped by long stretches of 50mph roadworks.
If I had a Tesla I would have used it without question - their supercharger network is fantastic - compared to my 11kW charging on the Merc, the 100+ kW charging is like witchcraft. When I hired a model S I stuck it on the S/C at Edinburgh airport, walked into the terminal and got a coffee. When I got back to the car with the coffee 12 mins after plugging in, it had added 60 more miles of range.
ps the Harry Potter play is very good indeed!
Last edited by: Lygonos on Thu 5 Apr 18 at 18:30
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>>
>> I have moved with cars from the time I would change my own "made from
>> cheese" Ford OH camshaft as a matter of course, to a car where I can
>> do nothing. It has no dipstick, I can't tell the oil level, check its colour,
>> smell it. The car will tell me when its time to change. There is a
>> (complex) way to electronically find the level, but one is specifically warned from using it
>> to top up, instructions to wait until notified.
>>
Mines got a different, earlier, engine to yours, but uses the same monitoring stuff AFAIK. It’s asked for a litre of oil to be added twice; once at just over 10k miles and another at just over 20k. Typical, as at 21,500 miles it needs servicing. Mind you, I seem to recall that my A4 2.0T also used regularly to require a 1 litre top-up just before a service! Other than that, the bonnet has been opened a few times to refill the screen wash.
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I'd have to dig out the manual for my old barge to see what the recommended oil is, but as the level has not yet gone far enough down the dipstick, I've not had to bother so far.
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So - what happens if one's AdBlue runs out, or one cannot the bothered to use it?
Last edited by: Roger. on Tue 3 Apr 18 at 20:45
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When it runs out and then after you turn off the ignition, the car it will not restart until topped up.
You have to use it - the car will not run without it. It's fairly cheap though.
Last edited by: rtj70 on Tue 3 Apr 18 at 20:47
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It does, on my car anyway, give you a bit of warning. Want to say it puts up a message on the dash telling you it's getting low. But as Rob says, if you were to let it run out completely, the car wouldn't start.
Last edited by: Runfer D'Hills on Tue 3 Apr 18 at 21:10
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>> So - what happens if one's AdBlue runs out, or one cannot the bothered to
>> use it?
As rtj says, car no go. You do get warnings though so no excuses and it's easy enough to keep a jerry can to hand just in case. In either of our cars it'd go in boot's emergency box along with glass clearing kit and other essential fluids.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Tue 3 Apr 18 at 21:15
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You shouldn't (musn't?) keep AdBlue in the car - it denatures at moderate temps which it could easily reach on hot day - I don't know if it goes pop or not... Anyway, you get at least 1500 miles warning - if you can't manage to find somewhere to fill it up in that time, then you deserve to be stranded! The engine won't actually stop, it just won't let you re-start it. On ours it needs 3.8l if allowed to run empty before it will re-start, so you wouldn't want to keep that in that car anyway!
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What does AdBlue do anyway?
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It breaks down nitrogen oxide dinto harmless nitrogen and oxygen.
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>> >> What does AdBlue do anyway?
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>> www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2mD-yYgiJs
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Interesting.
So that makes diesel fumes less harmful than petrol?
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No. There is still the question of particulates.
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I've had to tell a BMW dealer that my car has two coolant tanks this week (when I called to ask them why one had dropped significantly (a litre!) below minimum, so I think the average disinterested / non mechanically-minded punter needs all the help they can get.
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>> I've had to tell a BMW dealer that my car has two coolant tanks this
>> week (when I called to ask them why one had dropped significantly (a litre!) below
>> minimum,
Is it the intercooler or engine cooling system that is down?
The handbook does not explain the difference, merely to check both. You have to poke about to find which one is which. Did you get any warning messages?
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>> Is it the intercooler or engine cooling system that is down?
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>> The handbook does not explain the difference, merely to check both. You have to poke
>> about to find which one is which. Did you get any warning messages?
A low coolant warning popped up on the iDrive when starting from cold the other morning.
Both tanks were below minimum, although I suspect it was the engine cooling system (the bigger one) that triggered the warning as it took a litre of coolant to bring it back above minimum. The small took a couple of hundred mil or so, I would say.
This is a far from unknown "feature" of the B58 engine it would seem, if Google results are anything to go by. Might be worth checking yours, if you haven't already. Although why BMW chose to use opaque reservoirs that you can't just check at a glance is a mystery to me.
These engines run very hot by design. If you go into the hidden service menu on the dash panel, the coolant temp sits between 108°C and 110°C in normal driving, with oil temps a couple of degrees higher.
Last edited by: DP on Wed 4 Apr 18 at 14:54
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Mine is whining about pressure in the n/s rear tyre, and sure enough sticking my faithful Michelin electric infiltrator on it, it looks like I have a slow puncture. Losing about .3 bar a day.
Guess I'll have to see my local tyre fitter. Be a bummer if i have to fork out 166 quid for a P7 runflat
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>> P7 runflat
Especially when they aren't so good at the runlet bit.
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>> No. There is still the question of particulates.
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I thought that's what DPFs are for?
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Its is, they dont fully work.
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AdBlue v Oil - MD
