AdBlue. Any tips?

I think this just proves what us blokes knew all along and the manual should be locked away and never looked at as it only confuses things.  Should only come out of hiding when A. Something goes wrong/does not work or B. A warning light appears what we do not know what it means.  Apart from that like asking for directions it is not required!!

Bit like the cars at work............

The manuals were carefully retained by the Fleet Department for the eventual re-sale of the vehicle, whilst for three years or so a multitude of users thrashed the living daylights out of the cars without any reference to the manual........

In the main most of the cars and vans worked fine.....!

Although not a motorhomer I tow a caravan with a VW Touareg that uses adblue. The tank holds 19 litres and needed refilling initially at 4700 miles and I have just done it again at 11,000 miles so it will need refilling between services. This is a higher consumption then I expected but appears to be normal especially if engine is working hard. I get a VW dealer to refill it as they charge around £1 litre and do it for free so if I ever ran short whilst abroad, I would try to find a dealer to refill it. I believe the filler tank connections are to a European standard so you could probably go to any garage or dealer for a refill. Also, my VW  dealer did not refill the tank as part of a service, they seem to regard it like the fuel tank and it is the drivers responsibility to keep these tanks supplied.

I have just bought a new Fiat, Elddis Autoquest (rebranded Explorer by Knowepark Caravans). Hi, while I find the answers helpful....I have examined my handbook and the info is pretty sparse. Firstly, it does not tell me what capacity the Adblue tank is, secondly it does not tell me how many miles or Km grace I have once the warning light comes on. which, is pretty poor I think.

The guy from Knowepark when doing the handover mentioned that the tank would need topping up before 1000 miles. Perhaps like the fuel, they only put some Adblue in and not fill up the tank.  With all the info I had to absorb at the time I didn’t ask more questions......

Is it best that I contact a Fiat dealer? (which in my case, living in Edinburgh, is an Arnold Clark dealership).

Can anyone offer any help please?

 

I can’t give you hard and fast answers, SS, because fuel tank sizes and, consequently, AdBlue tank sizes vary from van to van and the miles per tank of AdBlue will vary with driving styles.

The info should be in your handbook (ours is for 2020 model) but your Fiat Professional dealership should be the people to ask. Generally, MH dealerships are not the most expert of people concerning base vehicle info.

“Generally, MH dealerships are not the most expert of people concerning base vehicle info”

When collecting our new Q5 in 2013 I saw the AdBlue filler cap so asked the salesman what it was.

He replied he had no idea and suggested checking the handbook.

As many have said I was told driving style influences consumption but it does feel odd that a system that is so important has no way of measuring the level however, on my car you get a warning 1500 miles before it will run out, 

I have used my local Audi dealer to do the top up and bought 10 litre containers from filling stations, including in Spain.

My Merc ML requires Adblue. In the last 18 months or so of owning the car I've done around15000 miles and added about 3 or 4 gallons of Adlbue. If I was you Sonsie, I'd buy a couple of gallons from Tesco, add it to the tank & drive until your motor home asks for some more. As motorhomes don't normally do much mileage, I'd bet a couple of gallons will be more than enough for a good while.

I`ve had a Merc and Volvo (cars) with Ad Blue the Merc used less than the Volvo, I find topping up is a bit hit and miss as you can`t determine when it is full without risk of overflowing, so topping up at a garage is the better option with the auto cut off. Find Toolstation is the cheapest for 10 Ltrs.

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Thanks very much all! I’ve figured out that around Edinburgh there are NO fuel stations that do Adblue at the pump so my best option is to buy 5/10 litres at my local Halfords and use a watering can to top it up.  
It’s all a learning curve but great fun at the same time! 

On another note.... my van has an underslung LPG tank - again, the capital of Scotland has NO fuel stations that do this at the pump, (apparently Shell had a fall out with Calor Gas and all their garages have withdrawn its sale.... Shell still advises however that they do still sell it, I had a few wasted journeys finding out the hard way!!)

The nearest filling station to me that does sell LPG at the pump is in Livingston. This makes sense of course as Knowepark Caravans are in Livingston and they have to put some in the tanks of new vehicles to test the system out and show buyers it all works, Of course a full tank of 25 litres will last me a long time so it wasn’t too much of a hardship.

Hoping that travel restrictions are lifted and COVID-19 will soon be under control so that we can all enjoy our special way of life as soon as possible. 🙏🏼

Take care all.