When Vauxhall went under Peugeot’s control, things became much worse than before. Now, you get a bunch of warnings that you can barely understand and some of them keep getting on your nerves especially seriously.
Vauxhall AdBlue reset has become one of the major questions to mechanics, and in this article, I’m going to give you the complete overview of this problem. Why would your Vauxhall count the miles till the diesel exhaust fluid is finished incorrectly? And what can you do with those nasty warnings threatening you that you won’t be able to start the car?
Well, there are a lot of things we need to talk about today!
AdBlue warnings in modern Vauxhall cars
So, there are three levels of AdBlue warnings in any Vauxhall vehicle that comes with the diesel engine and the AdBlue system:
- 1500-mile warning – it pops up on the dash when you have approximately 1500 miles left to drive with the remaining AdBlue;
- “Engine Restart Prevented in 560 Miles” warning – this happens when you have a low amount of AdBlue fluid in the tank and need to top up as soon as possible;
- The “AdBlue Empty, Refill Now” warning says that after a couple of miles, you may not restart the engine if you shut it off.
If you ignore all those messages, the Vauxhall will tell you “Refill AdBlue to Start Vehicle”. Without refilling the tank with DEF, you will not be able to drive.
This is the legal requirement in the UK (the same works all over Europe now) and there is nothing much you can do with this. As far as I know, you can’t bypass the “Refill AdBlue to Start Vehicle” without a professional scanner.
Also, you may want to read my article about the “Engine Fault, Repair Needed” error message in Vauxhall cars.
Can you turn off the warnings about low AdBlue?
These warnings will pop up for quite a long time and you will also hear the chime beeping at you 4 times. This is pretty annoying and can disturb you from driving. But you can do nothing till the warning disappears.
After you start the car again, it may or may not reappear – there is no consistency in this.
The ability to use the menu and navigate the dashboard functions depends on the vehicle model. I saw these messages in the Grandland X and I couldn’t do anything till the message disappeared. However, some other Vauxhall drivers claim that you still can navigate some parts of the menu when the warning is active.
Anyway, resetting or turning off the AdBlue warning is not possible with an OK button or some other simple method. I believe, there is a way to do that using a scanner but this is not a driver-friendly method and I won’t advertise it here.
I know one certain way to reset the AdBlue warning in your Vauxhall:
- stop your vehicle at the nearest gas station or near the car parts store;
- buy a 5-liter bottle of AdBlue;
- pour everything till the last drop into the AdBlue tank;
- start the vehicle and see if the message disappeared.
A lot of drivers claim that they add 1-2 liters of AdBlue and the message stays on. Yes, it will stay on. The manual clearly says that when you see the 1500-mile warning, you need to add 5 liters of AdBlue. This will make the sensors realize that you have enough diesel exhaust fluid to keep driving safely.
So, yes, adding a lot of AdBlue is the only natural way to reset that AdBlue warning. If you added some and it still pops up and beeps, you need to add more.
Why does Vauxhall always show 1700 miles till AdBlue is empty?
This is the Peugeot thing. The computer just doesn’t show any estimated remaining mileage higher than 1700 miles. It may stay at this point for a long time and only when the estimated miles counter drops below, it will start going down.
There is nothing you can do about it and this is how the Vauxhall AdBlue counter works. So, don’t be surprised when you press that button to check how many miles you still have. Only add some DEF when you receive that 1500-mile message. At this point, you are sure you can add about 5 liters safely without overfilling the tank.
GM Vauxhall cars were easier to understand. Maybe, the only problem was to remember what is code 16 or other short messages. Now, Vauxhall cars are super mysterious when it comes to inspection.
AdBlue tank is full but the warning keeps popping up
Another common problem with Vauxhall diesel cars is that you add a lot of diesel exhaust fluid but the 1500-mile or 560-mile warnings keep popping up.
I recently had a call from a friend and he told me that the Grandland X was saying that it wasn’t going to restart after the engine shut-off although there was a full tank of AdBlue. I suggested to not shut off the engine and head directly to the nearest Vauxhall dealer.
After they checked the vehicle with the scanner, it appeared to have a faulty AdBlue level sensor.
But the funniest thing is that the vehicle was less than 1 year old and had about 6,000 miles on it. This is not the only case of the AdBlue level sensor failing in Vauxhall cars that I’ve heard about. Fortunately, you can deal with it under warranty.
High emission warning – another issue with AdBlue
Your diesel Vauxhall car is equipped with a DPF unit that filters the exhaust gases. Also, it has an AdBlue tank and injector that sends some diesel exhaust fluid to the exhaust system. Everything works well during some miles. But these systems are not eternal. They are going to fail sooner or later.
The durability of the DPF and all the parts of the AdBlue injection system is hard to estimate. I’ve seen pretty fresh Vauxhall cars requiring DPF replacement – after something like 60,000 miles.
If something happens with those emission control systems, you will most likely get the “High emission” warning. In this case, the following things may happen:
- your vehicle may not restart, so don’t shut off the engine whatever happens;
- the engine power may be reduced as the engine may go to limp mode;
- everything may function well and the culprit may eventually be one of the emission sensors;
- your car will require proper inspection with good Vauxhall or Peugeot-Citroen specific scanners.
The best strategy, in this case, is to go to the dealer or maybe to a very good independent shop (if your car is not under warranty anymore) and have the vehicle inspected. Without this, you will most likely fail to start the engine the next time you want to drive the car.
Do you have any experience with Vauxhall emission control systems causing problems? Please share it in the comments below!
