AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Abingdon-on-Thames: How It Happens and How to Avoid It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and the ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before your motor runs, it is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Abingdon-on-Thames. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the page explains the why it takes place and the how to avoid it altogether.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Many current diesels on the roads round Abingdon-on-Thames and Shippon carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. Its own tank holds it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, where spraying treats the gas.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Some motors put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others place both side by side behind one flap. At the petrol pump, the diesel side gets filled all the time. Far less often, the AdBlue side is filled — mostly from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. The mistake grows in the gap between them.
Abingdon-on-Thames: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
Carelessness rarely explains it. What does is three things coming up at once.
On a driveway off Market Place before work, or in the car park at The Punchbowl on the way home: that's where the hurried top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low your car warns you, and once it's gone, limp mode kicks in.
The old car's filler is where your hand reaches — yet a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That's a second thing: a strange motor.
Lastly, the spout goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in just as easily, and after the tip starts, nothing halts it. Whether it occurs in Caldecott or the middle of Abingdon-on-Thames, it's the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Culham or a forecourt in Abingdon-on-Thames, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Go by the cap, not its position.
- The size. On many cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Look inside your fuel flap: plenty of motors carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler sits if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Radley.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
Anywhere across Oxfordshire the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Turn off once parked — flat ground, engine stopped, and not in a rush beside Stert Street at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew it. It sounds daft. It works.
- The two under a single flap? Then make sure the lid on your diesel side is still shut ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap, then look once more — making sure the diesel filler stayed closed the whole time. After that, start your car.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Don't go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Abingdon-on-Thames?
Short order, then. Top of it: the engine remains unstarted. Keep your ignition off as well, since on many diesels it by itself runs your fuel pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is pulled from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
At a forecourt — BP, Marcham Road Service Station or any other — the staff will normally help push the car clear, when you ask. Your own drive in Abingdon-on-Thames is the place it should stay.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your motor has already run. On the Wheatley Spur, under 10 miles from Abingdon-on-Thames, that means the next junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Oxford, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Abingdon-on-Thames.
Our arrival around Abingdon-on-Thames, and what takes place next
Our van comes to the vehicle wherever it has come to rest — your own drive, near St Nicolas Church, or by Carswell Community Primary School. We ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it's run, because the answers determine this work and our quote. You hear that quote by phone, before anyone sets off.
After that: draining, then a full flush of the entire system. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. Filter flushed or, where it must be, replaced; clean diesel in; then a check of the car. Before leaving, our technicians fire it up and make sure that it's running properly.
Unrun cars usually mean a half-hour job from the moment we arrive. The equipment is fine on a busy filling station, and hushed enough for a driveway late at night. The insurer usually wants an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours once the job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. While we travel, take a look at your policy; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Abingdon-on-Thames and where it is
Abingdon-on-Thames is a town situated on the River Thames in Oxfordshire, with a population of around 20615 people. Abingdon-on-Thames has a mix of housing types, but terraced houses are particularly prevalent. Abingdon-on-Thames is located near several smaller places, including Caldecott, Northcourt, and Wildmoor, and is close to the city of Oxford. Abingdon-on-Thames sits at an elevation of 57 metres above sea level, approximately 50.8 miles west of London.
AdBlue drains in Abingdon-on-Thames and across Oxfordshire
Over OX postcodes, the teams that cover Abingdon-on-Thames — a riverside town — work the surrounding places too, Wildmoor and Northcourt included. Quickest of all: give a OX14 3 postcode to our van.
There's no need to shift the vehicle. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Abbey Gardens, a side street close to Abingdon County Hall Museum: our technicians drain the car where it is. Guessing doesn't help at the back of Guildhall, on a boundary, or anywhere awkward to pin down; phone and ask.
For Abingdon-on-Thames drivers, the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere around Oxfordshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — so leave the car off and phone 0333 366 0103.