AdBlue - Have I over filled it? Sanity Check

[Jezmondo71]

Hi, I love this Forum and it has been a wealth of information for me since getting my van. After a lot of reading over the last few days I think I have over filled my AdBlue but would be interested in your thoughts and to sanity check my thinking.

I've owned the Van (2018 T30 SWB Kombi 150 Manual) for 18 months as a day van, when I bought it the garage sorted the AdBlue and I haven't really thought about it until it got down to 700 miles to go on Sunday and the readout said 2 Gallons (9.09 Litres) Minimum and 2.75 Gallons (12.5 Litres) Maximum.


So following advice to only put in what was being asked I bought 10 Litres from B&Q. I put in the whole 10 Litres, switched the ignition on and waited for 30 seconds, fired up and no change! I've since driven 128 miles and today it's showing 550 Miles to go and the Amber fill warning is on and the EML has lit (P203B00 - Reductant Level Sensor Circuit Range/Performance).

So after a lot more reading on here and hooking up ODB Eleven yesterday when I returned from work to look at the live data I noted:

Engine Module:
Reducing agent fill level sensor - 0mm
Reducing agent tank volume actual value calculated - 3.626L
Remaining vehicle distance until reducing agent deficiency - 956.492km

Dashboard Module:
Urea operating range - 600km (presume this actually means miles as 600 Miles is approximately 957km)

So my thinking is despite it saying fill between 9 and 12.5 Litres, it actually had just over 3.5 litres left in the tank and when I added 10 Litres it's overfilled and that's why the level sensor is reading as 0mm because there is no air gap to allow a new measurement?

After work today and completing a further 56 miles
I am seeing:
Reducing agent tank volume actual value calculated - 3.533L (a reduction of 0.093L) so I am thinking rough maths I need to drive another 300ish miles to reduce the real amount in the tank to below 13 Litres?

I have attached both days logs for reference.

Does this sound correct ie. I've overfilled it and confused it? If only I knew before filling it that I could get a tank reading from the Engine Module
and if my thinking is correct given that I now have the warning sitting at 550 miles until no start, do I just keep driving and hope it resets or should I get under the tank and drop the pipe to get say 4 to 5 litres out and then have a drive to hopefully force it to register?

I'm presuming P203B00 is related to the overfill/incorrect value and that I can clear it down?

 

[oldiebut goodie]

Sometimes I wonder if the gallons that they use are US and not UK in the display.
But in this case the 10l should have been fine as 2.75 US gal is 10.4l and 2.75 UK gal is 12.5l.
I must admit that I never fill up with the maximum indicated due to the reports that I have seen with the same results as you have received.

 

[ginkster]

Is this your first fill in the 18 months? If so have you only done about 5000 miles in that time? If so could it be 18 month old adblue crystallising and causing issues with the sensor? Maybe working fine beforehand but not recognising any/all of your top up hence no reset?

I swap the units on the MFD to litres to double check what is needed before refilling. Doubt it would have made any difference for you as 10L seems a perfectly reasonable top up if you’ve done around 5000miles.

 

[jimc91]

I doubt you over filled it, look at my picture, I put 10 litres in which is just over 2 gallons and it reset no problem

 

[Stay Frosty]

Carry on driving within reason as following a refill the poxy Adblu doesn't automatically reset and if you're really lucky goes into the start defeat countdown too.
On holiday this year in France our Adblu message after topping up didn't reset until just over 80kms of dejected driving back to the UK.

 

[Jezmondo71]

Is this your first fill in the 18 months? If so have you only done about 5000 miles in that time? If so could it be 18 month old adblue crystallising and causing issues with the sensor? Maybe working fine beforehand but not recognising any/all of your top up hence no reset?

I swap the units on the MFD to litres to double check what is needed before refilling. Doubt it would have made any difference for you as 10L seems a perfectly reasonable top up if you’ve done around 5000miles.

It's a 2nd vehicle so mainly weekend use.

 

[AdL]

I found it takes a while to reset the mileage. Had the 2018 van a year now. 1st time I overfilled to the point of spilling out but did not seem to matter. Recently refilled without spilling but needed a short drive to reset.

 

[Jezmondo71]

I found it takes a while to reset the mileage. Had the 2018 van a year now. 1st time I overfilled to the point of spilling out but did not seem to matter. Recently refilled without spilling but needed a short drive to reset.

I've done 128 miles since the refill, guess i'll keep going till I reach 200 miles to go and then panic some more if it hasn't fixed itself

 

[monkeybusiness]

I don't think this problem is limited to our vans.
My old Nissan Navara would take a while (a few days of a decent runs) to acknowledge it had a full tank of adblue.

 

[Skyliner33]

This thread has got me wondering, what happens if you put in AdBlue but , for eg, half a litre less than the minimum of the range it is asking for?

 

[roadtripper]

I think the min/max isn't calculated as such - it's just the lack of precision in the measurement.

So if the van thinks you need to put in say 9 litres it's probably going to say 8.5 to 9.5 if the precision is "within half a litre"

I normally wait till the middle of the measurement lines up with 5l or 10l then bung a bottle full in. I'm going to try to do it at 5l from now on due to crystallisation risk as we are not using the van (Caravelle) at the rate the tank is designed for (Works Van)

 

[Jezmondo71]

I think the min/max isn't calculated as such - it's just the lack of precision in the measurement.

So if the van thinks you need to put in say 9 litres it's probably going to say 8.5 to 9.5 if the precision is "within half a litre"

I normally wait till the middle of the measurement lines up with 5l or 10l then bung a bottle full in. I'm going to try to do it at 5l from now on due to crystallisation risk as we are not using the van (Caravelle) at the rate the tank is designed for (Works Van)

totally agree, i'm only using mine for weekend stuff and the odd run to work (60 mile round trip) to give it a blast on the dual carriageway. Think i'll be double checking the actual reading from the engine module using ODB as well prior to any refills and use that figure for guidance.

 

[Jezmondo71]

This thread has got me wondering, what happens if you put in AdBlue but , for eg, half a litre less than the minimum of the range it is asking for?

In my case I guess that would have been spot on and resulted in my having approx 12.5 Litres after fill.

 

[Ayjay]

Every time I've filled with AdBlue, it's reset immediately (to 5500). Mind you, the last time after about about 400 miles, the MFD suddenly told me that I needed a refill in 600 miles (IIRC) that went down to 500 and then back up to 5000 over the next 30 miles. When I had my last service, I told VW Swindon about it and they advised that there was a software update which was supposed to fix such issues. Mind you, they didn't have time to do it so I've got to book it in again (with 100 miles to get there and back!). The more I have to deal with VW, the less impressed I am.

 

[matt_w]

I might be wrong here, but I don't think you can overfill. I thought the van would swallow up the 15L I bought just like my Merc does and overfilled to the point where it was pouring out down the side of the van. I can recall if it updated the values instantly or not, but I know I did about 1K of driving before it said any less that 4500 miles till fill up.

 

[roadtripper]

I might be wrong here, but I don't think you can overfill. I thought the van would swallow up the 15L I bought just like my Merc does and overfilled to the point where it was pouring out down the side of the van. I can recall if it updated the values instantly or not, but I know I did about 1K of driving before it said any less that 4500 miles till fill up.

Overfilling is a well known issue - if you do there is a very strong chance the van will read the tank as empty because it cannot detect the surface and start the 650mile ignition lock out countdown in the belief it is empty.

While adblue is a common fluid, not all adblue systems behave the same. VW put the min and max on the dash for a reason, don't make an assumption and strand your van.

See the extensive thread here:

AdBlue top-up issue (merge)

Seems a completely bonkers system. My 2016 Nissan Navara takes Adblue and you just fill the tank. No bother at all.

www.t6forum.com

Mod note: we should perhaps focus this thread to helping @Jezmondo71 - general adblue discussion on the thread above please.

 

[matt_w]

Thanks for the above... I obviously got lucky.

 

[jimc91]

2.75 gallons is 12.5 litres so I’d be tempted to put another 2 litres in which is still under the max amount suggested and see if that triggers it to reset

 

[Stay Frosty]

Last time ours did this and 80kms later reset it felt as if the Adblu had swilled around in the tank and dissolved any urea crystals and got the contents back to a piddley solution rather than fresh Adblu top up and the detector looking like a crusty stalagmite... my mind has been known to wander.

 

[mmi]

P203B00 - Reductant Level Sensor Circuit Range/Performance

the level sensor is reading as 0mm

The issue is that the sensor reports a failure - P203B - implausible signal - as it indeed is. Nothing to do with "overfill". You need to fix that - by using traditional means - check power, ground, connections - before replacing the sensor.

Actually the level sensor on T6 doesn't get confused by "overfill" - as indeed was the case with early generation AdBlue systems.

AdBlue Refill Query

MFD display... Adblue in Ltrs.... not Gallons. Took me a min too.....

www.t6forum.com