D5 and Ad-Blue Use & Refilling

[GP1200]

Does anybody know if you can top up your Ad-Blue tank on your new D5 yourself?
reading the U.K. sites, it's a dealer service option only, which would be a real pain.

With only 1x service centre North of Perth ( Geraldton ) its going to be a real problem if you were in the North West & your light came on! Reading the U.K. posts, the refill light does come on between services and your are in Broome.

Getting ad-blue is not a issue, but if you need to hook up the laptop every time you fill, that's going to be a deal breaker. I will ask the dealer next week, but hoping someone has gone into it.

jack

[scarry]

I read yes, you can top it up yourself,but they are saying that it has a filler that only takes LR container.

A few are complaining about this,but may not be Aus spec?

Once you find out,please report back[smilebigeye]

[GP1200]

Mmmm, will do !

Jack

[BobD]

The Ad Blue system in the new LR's is a shocker. A special bottle is required to fit the filler located under the bonnet and they are incredibly expensive and only available from dealers ($19 per bottle with 9 bottles required every 7,000km or so on a Disco sport).

I got around the problem of availability by buying two of the special containers and then after emptying them into the car, unscrewing the top and filling one of the bottles from a bulk container several times to fill up the car. I keep the other bottle as a spare but if you have two people you could be filling one bottle while emptying the other to speed things up. The neck of the bottles is quite narrow so you need a funnel to get the Ad Blue into the bottles. The bulk Ad Blue is around 25% of the cost of the factory bottles roughly.

[GP1200]

Thanks Bob,
thats amazing, 9x bottles for 7000Km, how big are the bottles ?

Ad-Blue supply is not a issue,
( we could swim in it at work ! ) we start at 10 litres all the way up to 1000 Litre IBC plus a 5000 litre bulk tank ( we are a truck dealership) but if the little brother Disco uses that much, I hate to think what a big 3 liter engine with 3.5 ton van swinging off the back will do to its consumption, we find our usage in trucks is load, wind and terrain dependent.

( if you need it Bob, drop in and see us, we are at Forrestfield )

jack

[trout1105]

Cant you just get a bag of urea and make your own with some de mineralised water ?
Has to be cheaper than 9 x bottles every 7,000k's from a dealer or buying it bulk elsewhere.
Also what actually happens if you run out of this stuff?
Does the engine shut down or will a lack of ad-blue damage the engine or catalytic converter?

[whyatts]

You could purchase 1 top up bottle from your Land Rover retailer & then buy a bulk 5, 10
or 20 litre from an Adblue supplier. Make sure it meets Land Rover's specifications.

If you purchase a Service plan with your new Discovery it comes with 3x complimentary top ups in addition to topping up the fluid at each of the 5 yearly services (excluding 2.0 diesel which has a 24month service)

[jayray377]

Autobahn sell the air1 brand that is used in service station in a 1 litre bottle with a filling nozzle that fits the disco sport perfectly. I have a bulk drum that I use to refill the one litre container ( ~$5/litre)
It takes around 2.5l and 5 mins of driving to get the light to go out.

[BobD]

You could purchase 1 top up bottle from your Land Rover retailer & then buy a bulk 5, 10
or 20 litre from an Adblue supplier. Make sure it meets Land Rover's specifications.

If you purchase a Service plan with your new Discovery it comes with 3x complimentary top ups in addition to topping up the fluid at each of the 5 yearly services (excluding 2.0 diesel which has a 24month service)

If you read my post you would see that that is what I do. The bottles are 900ml and I fill them from a 20l bulk container. There is nothing special about the Ad Blue, just the container you need to fill it from..

Once it runs out the car will not start. It gives you various degrees of warnings as it gets closer to running out, until it will not start. It's a Euro legal requirement I think.

[BobD]

Thanks Bob,
thats amazing, 9x bottles for 7000Km, how big are the bottles ?

Ad-Blue supply is not a issue,
( we could swim in it at work ! ) we start at 10 litres all the way up to 1000 Litre IBC plus a 5000 litre bulk tank ( we are a truck dealership) but if the little brother Disco uses that much, I hate to think what a big 3 liter engine with 3.5 ton van swinging off the back will do to its consumption, we find our usage in trucks is load, wind and terrain dependent.

( if you need it Bob, drop in and see us, we are at Forrestfield )

jack

Easy to buy the stuff cheaply, just not the bottled stuff that LR requires you to use.

I was actually wrong. The car takes 13.7l of the stuff and I am just coming up to my third refill at 17000km. There was less than 1000km to go at each refill. Absolutely a pain in the neck to refill 12 of those bottles and screw them onto the filler every time it runs out.

I have severely complained about the ridiculous system every time they ask for feed back on the car.

As you say, it would be terrible in the larger cars.

[trout1105]

If not using this add-blue doesn't hurt the engine or exhaust system is there any way of fooling the electronics that the tank is always full?

[justinc]

You can remap and delete dpf/egr/adblue on most trucks and vehicles now. Not certain that the d5 is in the system yet and obviously it is a legal minefield....

Jc

[goingbush]

In Australia we are on Euro 4 , we do not "NEED" DPF or SCR , that means AdBlue . All you need on Euro4 is EGR and CAT .

Look at your Australian Compliance plate it will say Euro 4 . D5 is Euro 6

get an AdBlue Emulator it wont harm the SCR .

EPA have a clause that Emissions System must not be altered "without just cause" - just like in The Castle

Also don't drive through or park on dry grass the DPF operates at 750c Dry grass flash point is 350c

[BobD]

I don't have a problem using Ad Blue. It is just the LR filling system that is ridiculous. Other brands have a filler for bulk Ad Blue from a servo, which is much better.

[Tombie]

Had a look around today... no ad-Blue at any of our servos!

Bloody ridiculous emissions laws...

[veebs]

Cant you just get a bag of urea and make your own with some de mineralised water ?

I misread this at first - I can create my own urea, but I wouldn't use de mineralised water...

[trout1105]

I misread this at first - I can create my own urea, but I wouldn't use de mineralised water...

HeHe [biggrin]

[GP1200]

Just spoke to our local dealer, no problem with filling up the ad-blue ourselves, like Bob said, I think you might have to use the little bottle like Bob does with his Disco Sport.

Looks like I'm the owner of a new HSE Luxury..... its will be a 2018 model as they had very little choices with diff lock & capability pack with stock on hand, so a factory order it was, now to sell the D4, going to miss the old white fridge look.....

Jack

[Lee Jackson]

You wont be disappointed.

[Tombie]

When I order mine, first thing will be to delete the AdBlue system and close EGRs from the ECU...

[rar110]

When I order mine, first thing will be to delete the AdBlue system and close EGRs from the ECU...

Has someone worked out how to close the EGRs?

[scarry]

Has someone worked out how to close the EGRs?

Probably depends which engine you are talking about.

[rar110]

Probably depends which engine you are talking about.

Either the td4 or 6.

[VladTepes]

Well yet ANOTHER reason I like the mighty Tdi !

[Tombie]

Well yet ANOTHER reason I like the mighty Tdi !

Nothing “mighty” about a Tdi..

[donh54]

Nothing “mighty” about a Tdi..
Depends on your expectations [emoji12]

[steve_a]

What is the effect of running out? I saw that the new Ford Ranger or something like that had a similar issue in that if it runs out the engine just refuses (not won't) to run.

If the effect is nil damage to car then I'd be looking at the sensor and making a 'it's full' add on for emergency use. In fact, I guess for emergency use I'd not care too much about no adblue. Can you toss water in and sneak away with that?

Euro emission vs stranded and dieing - that isn't exactly Australian is it?

[BobD]

What is the effect of running out? I saw that the new Ford Ranger or something like that had a similar issue in that if it runs out the engine just refuses (not won't) to run.

If the effect is nil damage to car then I'd be looking at the sensor and making a 'it's full' add on for emergency use. In fact, I guess for emergency use I'd not care too much about no adblue. Can you toss water in and sneak away with that?

Euro emission vs stranded and dieing - that isn't exactly Australian is it?

As per earlier posts in this thread the engine will not start. You get lots of warning messages before that, however. It also checks for the proper material I think. You wouldn't leave on a remote trip without making sure its full. If you did you would be a fool, its like leaving with no fuel in the tank.

The bulk stuff is available in truck servos and parts shops such as Repco, Supercheap, AutoOne and Bursons, so there is no trouble with availability. It is just the stupid Land Rover system of requiring the 900 mm special bottle to refill the tank that is the problem. You need to carry an empty bottle with you to fill it up when it becomes due, or any other time you want to top it up.

[FisherX]

G'day Guy's

Seen this on youtube. Looks like you only need a standard funnel. Or could you just buy one bottle from Land Rover, cut the bottom of the bottle off and use that as a funnel.



How to Refill the AdBlue on a Land Rover Discovery - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2N6ZJr2XyA)

[BobD]

The bottle is designed to screw on and then you push it down to open a valve and let the fluid in. I assume that the valve is in the bottle so it doesn't spill when screwing it on upside down, so a funnel may be possible. It would be difficult to make the bottle into a funnel because you have to apply constant pressure to open the valve, I think. Also difficult to pour the stuff in from a 20l container where the filler is located in the engine bay.

Anything is possible and depends on what sort of a mess you are prepared to make and what your priorities are. However, we shouldn't have to be doing this. They should just have an easily accessible filler that you can fill up from a bowser, like some other cars have.

I will just continue to fill the bottles with a funnel and then screw them onto the filler in the correct way to minimise spillage and difficulty around the filler area. Every time I get a survey request from Land Rover I complain bitterly about it.

[Old Farang]

Hmm, probably of not much use to those that already have a D5, but I looked at one here in Thailand just last week and asked about this Ad-Blue problem as it is not readily available here. The answer is that when somebody orders a D5 they import it from the factory without the Ad-Blue system. Now whether or not it is still there and just disabled I do not know, but it comes from the factory without the need for it. And yes, emission standards here are supposed to be Euro 4.

I do not know just what the fitting on the LR bottle is, but it should not take a good engineering shop much effort to convert or make up the fitting. Connect it to a flexible hose and use a garden type pump up spray bottle for the Ad-Blue. Those things are available in metal and various capacities.

[powen]

Does anybody know if you can top up your Ad-Blue tank on your new D5 yourself?
reading the U.K. sites, it's a dealer service option only, which would be a real pain.

With only 1x service centre North of Perth ( Geraldton ) its going to be a real problem if you were in the North West & your light came on! Reading the U.K. posts, the refill light does come on between services and your are in Broome.

Getting ad-blue is not a issue, but if you need to hook up the laptop every time you fill, that's going to be a deal breaker. I will ask the dealer next week, but hoping someone has gone into it.

jackyou can buy bottles and add to it at any time genuine landrover have them 1.89 litre bottles peter

[BobD]

you can buy bottles and add to it at any time genuine landrover have them 1.89 litre bottles peter

We've already covered that in earlier posts but thanks for confirming the bottle size. I was wrong, they are 1.9l not 0.9l, which halves the number of times you have to screw the bottle on to the filler for the 13.5l it takes to fill at $19.00 per bottle.

As per earlier posts, it is much cheaper to buy the 20l containers and refill a Land Rover bottle as many times as it takes or even put a funnel in and fill it through there, although that looks very slow in the video posted earlier. It probably also allows you to overfill it whereas the bottle system will probably prevent that.

[jayray377]

G'day Guy's

Seen this on youtube. Looks like you only need a standard funnel. Or could you just buy one bottle from Land Rover, cut the bottom of the bottle off and use that as a funnel.



How to Refill the AdBlue on a Land Rover Discovery - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2N6ZJr2XyA)

I just filled my disco sport with the 10l drum from repco ($40) as pictured, no dramas.

I did have some minor spillage which I hosed off.

[BobD]

I hope you put more in than the guy in the video! It holds 13.5l, not 0.1l.

[jayray377]

Hey Bob,
Yep the whole 10. Next time I will try the BP down the road as it has adblue available at the bowser.

[trout1105]

I am just wondering why this add blue is so expensive, Urea is about $250 per tonne which is enough to make roughly 3,000ltrs of this stuff that sells for $19 for about 2ltrs with about 25 cents worth of urea in it.

[Bohica]

Every thing in bulk is cheaper. How Pure is this urea? You need to use demineralised water, as the trace sediments in tap water may clog the injector part. ABout $280 per 1000L You will need 2000L of water per 1000kg of urea to have a 33% solution, by weight. About 3320L About 16cents per litre.

[trout1105]

Every thing in bulk is cheaper. How Pure is this urea? You need to use demineralised water, as the trace sediments in tap water may clog the injector part. That is $1.6 .


I would imagine that filtered rainwater would do the job, Mix up your urea with it then run the mix through another filter to remove any contaminants.
Perhaps we have a chemist within our membership that could shed some light on this as I imagine you wouldn't have to be a rocket scientist to make this stuff.

[Bohica]

Perhaps we have a chemist within our membership that could shed some light on this as I imagine you wouldn't have to be a rocket scientist to make this stuff.

That would be me [bigsmile]

I'm still trying to find out the final volume of the 33% solution. My guess of 3320L is I think inaccurate.
A 12% solution, added to 1L of water gives about 974mL of solution, or .974L
In any case even at this reduction, you are looking at 27 cents per litre.

Rocket science no.
Bucket chemistry yes. Filtering is the key.

[donh54]

Well, with the 720 Scania I was driving for a while, the boss told me that if you're within 2-300 Kim's from home (he had an IBC of Adblue in the shed) and the light comes on, just stick a garden hose in it to top it up enough to get you home. Never had any issues and he'd been doing it for over eight hundred thousand Kim's. He said he had seen the inside of an Adblue tank at the dealers, and it had about an inch of urea stuck to the sides.

[GP1200]

From our experience ( have been using ad-blue in trucks for getting on close to 10 years now maybe ), just buy the stuff, and make sure it's a known brand, in trucks it can cause $20,000 to $30,000 worth of damage to the system.

in a Land Rover it will probably be more .... ha ha

lots of shonky people have and are making ad-blue, we see them come and go in our industry, not worth risking a major failure, feel sorry for the poor transport industry that has no choice to purchase it in 1000 litre pods or 10,000 bulk tanks on a weekly or monthly basis to keep their trucks running down the highways.

Retail price is around $1-00 per litres, with the cheapest I have personally seen around $-50 cents a litre, average price most pay is around $-80 cents per litre.

so I won't be trying to cook it up in the back garden, really not worth for the small amounts that a car / 4WD based vehicles use.

Jack

[trout1105]

From what I can gather the add blue is not a legal requirement in Australia and Not using it causes No harm So why not have the system bypassed by the dealer Before you take delivery?[thumbsupbig]
Urea is pretty corrosive stuff, You only have to look at the damage it does to a super shed to see that So personally I would much rather Not put it through my engine if I didn't have to [bigwhistle]

[GP1200]

Legal requirement to pass the emissions laws. ( it does in trucks, not sure about cars and such )
we had EGR, a DPF and Ad-Blue on the cards here in Australia later this decade but the government have deferred at this stage, ( thank god )

we we can blame the USA and Europe for the emission laws, Australia just follows like sheep

we haved moved away from EGR and a DPF and now just using ad-blue only, it is so much better EGR & a DPF, it was a horrid system,

jack

[BobD]

It doesn't go through the engine so there is no trouble there. It only goes into the exhaust.

I'd love to find a dealer that would disable it!! We need someone like Graeme or Mark to work out a way to do it I think.

[GP1200]

After your warranty has run it course.

[scarry]

So can anyone confirm,if the D5 has add blue,there is no DPF or EGR?

[Tombie]

So can anyone confirm,if the D5 has add blue,there is no DPF or EGR?

Best to check - Ingenium are specified as EGR and SCR

[Bohica]

Urea is pretty corrosive stuff, You only have to look at the damage it does to a super shed to see that So personally I would much rather Not put it through my engine if I didn't have to [bigwhistle]

The corrosive effect depends on the concentration. Urea is filtered out of the body via the kidneys, bladder etc. In low concentrations, it is not that corrosive.

Vinegar is pretty corrosive, see how it eats away at metal.

[trout1105]

The corrosive effect depends on the concentration. Urea is filtered out of the body via the kidneys, bladder etc. In low concentrations, it is not that corrosive.

Vinegar is pretty corrosive, see how it eats away at metal.

If anyone's urine contained 35% urea it would be a rather painful experience I would imagine [bigwhistle]

[hodgo]

would this be of any use to you its an add blue pump on gray's on line auction
(http://www.graysonline.com/lot/0043-7018017/auto-accessories/unused-electric-fuel-transfer-pump'redirect=0)http://www.graysonline.com/lot/0050-7018017/auto-accessories/unused-100l-adblue-tank'redirect=0

Unused Electric Fuel Transfer Pump (http://www.graysonline.com/lot/0043-7018017/auto-accessories/unused-electric-fuel-transfer-pump'redirect=0)
Lot No: 0043-7018017

[jayray377]

Just a note to add to this thread.
Filled up the disco sport with ad-blu from the BP service station on the princes freeway in Avalon.
Could not have been easier!!
Nozzle fits exactly, no drips.
Not buying the drum again.

[Don 130]

If anyone's urine contained 35% urea it would be a rather painful experience I would imagine [bigwhistle]

I'm pretty sure you'd have gout in every joint of your body long before you got to 35%, and having had it, I can tell you it is not funny. :no2:
Don.

[DiscoTom]

I have 3 L/R ad-blue containers which I use for filling the, just over 15ltr tank in the D5.
I went to Repco and brought a 10LTR container of ad- blue and decant this into the L/R containers.

I then fill the 10LTR container @ the nearest truck stop that has an Ad-Blue bowser.

so far, I have used about 45LTRS of ad-blue in the D5 since buying the vehicle in 2/2018 and, so far, it has not stopped.???

Cheers Tom
D5 HSE TD6

[DiscoTom]

Does anybody know if you can top up your Ad-Blue tank on your new D5 yourself?
reading the U.K. sites, it's a dealer service option only, which would be a real pain.

With only 1x service centre North of Perth ( Geraldton ) its going to be a real problem if you were in the North West & your light came on! Reading the U.K. posts, the refill light does come on between services and your are in Broome.

Getting ad-blue is not a issue, but if you need to hook up the laptop every time you fill, that's going to be a deal breaker. I will ask the dealer next week, but hoping someone has gone into it.

jack

Hi Jack
i have a couple of the L/R ad-blue containers and I refill these from a, Repco 10LTR ad-blue drum, I have purchased. I refill this drum from any truck stop.
so far, have used 45LTRs this way and the D5 still keeps going.
uses about 1 LTR of ad-blue per 800km. more when towing the c.van

Cheers Tom
Trigg
D5 HSE TD6

[GP1200]

Hi Tom,
had to fill my ad-blue tank for the first time this weekend on 6cylinder D5, 9000 km and it wanted 13.5 litres put in, so used my “free” 1.89 lire Land Rover ad-blue and my own TRP branded ad-blue 10 litre container with the flexi blue convoluted fill hose, the genuine ad-blue is a screw on and push, but filling from the 10 litre container only took a few minutes and $15-00 cost, so happy with that.

the useage is not too bad really, so will just wait another 9000 km hopefully to fill up again.
be intresting when we hang the van off the back to see how much more it uses.

the filler neck is tiny, don’t know why, but with a funnel it will be quick and easy.

jack142320142320

[BobD]

Just a note to add to this thread.
Filled up the disco sport with ad-blu from the BP service station on the princes freeway in Avalon.
Could not have been easier!!
Nozzle fits exactly, no drips.
Not buying the drum again.

Be careful filling up like this.

If you overfill the car the sensor doesn't work and it thinks that there is no Adblue. This means that it will not start unless you remove some Adblue to get the sensor to work.

The manual specifically says not to fill up at bowsers, maybe for the above reason.

There is some stuff on Topix about it and LR is complaining that there has been excessive and unexpected demand for the 1.9l bottles, much more than they anticipated. It goes on to say that cheaper and better equipment is readily available so dealers should encourage owners to use it instead of the 1.9l bottles. Its a pity that the manual specifically says to use the 1.9l bottles and nothing else!!

[WhiteD3]

Tried this with a 10L bottle and funnel and got messy results. Even being super careful with the flow rate the throat of the DEF tank will still overflow.

Looks like refilling the LR bottles is the go.

Why have they made this such a pain to do and the handbook so vague?




G'day Guy's

Seen this on youtube. Looks like you only need a standard funnel. Or could you just buy one bottle from Land Rover, cut the bottom of the bottle off and use that as a funnel.



How to Refill the AdBlue on a Land Rover Discovery - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2N6ZJr2XyA)

[WhiteD3]

Just filled up again using refilled bottled. Easy and clean but laborious.

Assuming the tank was full at 19L when new, after 11,300k I'm averaging 505k per litre which I nowhere near the 800k per litre the manual states. Driving is I suppose what you'd call extra urban. 50/50 city and highway.

[BobD]

I seem to fill my Disco Sport around every 5000km using a cheaper 10l bottle and refilling the 1.9l bottles to fill the car.

Much less laborious last time. My wife volunteered to fill it since she was sick of waiting for me to do it and she mostly drives the car. Now that she knows how I don't think I will be filling it again!!

[jayray377]

Just a note to add to this thread.
Filled up the disco sport with ad-blu from the BP service station on the princes freeway in Avalon.
Could not have been easier!!
Nozzle fits exactly, no drips.
Not buying the drum again.

Hey all,

Since this original post I have filled up a further 3 times, mainly at the Avalon BP stations as I pass these regularly.
I have seen many service stations in and around the city now have adblue pumps.

I can only reiterate it is relatively fast and no harder than topping up the water. I usually just add 10l to the Disco sport when it tells me to top up.

I can not fathom a need for me to every stuff around with bottles etc again but I do appreciate not everyone has such convenient access to the pumps.

Joel

[WhiteD3]

Gents,

At 17408 kms on the SD4 I'm averaging 600k/litre (assuming the tank was full at new) vs the 800k stated in the manual. 50/50 city and highway driving. Interested to see what other SD4's are doing.

On that, can someone enlighten me on what sort of driving and or speeds affect the usage for good and bad?

I ask because a colleague at work has an MY18 RRS TD6 that does similar mileage, routes and driving style and it uses (or seems to use) a lot less.

Cheers.

Mark

[IndusD4]

Can't help with the figures on a SD4 but in my TD6 I am on track for around 650km on a litre. Mainly city driving and once a week on average up the motorway.

Ron