How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Adderbury
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and the ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, done just where the car stands around Adderbury, is usually what it needs if caught before the engine runs. Reading before the event? Then the rest covers why it comes about and how to prevent it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Many current diesels on the roads round Adderbury and Milton carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. Its own tank holds it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, and there spraying treats the fumes.
Separate tanks, different fillers. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Topping up the diesel side at the pump goes on constantly. Rarely topped up, AdBlue usually goes in out of a bottle, poured by a driver who must stop and think what filler to use. The mistake grows in the gap between the two.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank occur in Adderbury?
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from the vehicle, and running out means limp mode — so a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Croft Lane, perhaps outside The Coach and Horses on the way home that evening.
Next, the hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old car — because a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers where your last one didn't.
A spout-topped bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, after begun, carries on. Whether it occurs in East Adderbury or the middle of Adderbury, it is the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Be it a Adderbury forecourt or a driveway over in Kings Sutton, take a few seconds over these before any goes in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually isn't. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- The size. On plenty of motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on many motors. Check for it.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by your diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at Kings Sutton, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
The day the light comes on, wherever across Oxfordshire, follow this routine.
- Pull in somewhere level, motor off, with time to spare — never rushing on the side of Sir Georges Lane.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap works — once you've found your filler and read it.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Finish once that tank fills or the bottle is empty; before that, tip slowly using its own spout.
- Before starting the vehicle, shut the cap and check again that your diesel cap was never came off.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Leave out step five altogether.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Adderbury already?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the motor. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch it on. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is drawn from.
The attendants at Esso, Sainsbury's or any forecourt will normally help to push the vehicle clear if asked. If you're on your own driveway in Adderbury, leave the car where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your engine has already run. Come off the M40 — under a mile out of Adderbury — at the next junction. Distance counts — a quick hop across Adderbury is a smaller job than driving under 25 miles to Oxford — so tell us about how far it went.
Our arrival around Adderbury, and what occurs next
Wherever the car has stopped, whether outside Christopher Rawlins Church of England Primary School, beside Adderbury Methodist Chapel or on your own drive, our van travels to it. What fluid got in, the quantity, and whether it ran: our technicians ask since those answers set both work and quote. You hear that price on the phone, before anybody heads out.
Then the tank is cleared and your system cleaned thoroughly. Much more than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: crystals build up, some metals corrode, and nothing clears away unaided, however long it is left. Once your filter has been cleaned — or replaced, if needed — clean diesel goes in, and then the vehicle is tested. Your engine is started next and tested to confirm it runs smoothly, all before our engineers head off.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour once we arrive, provided the motor hasn't run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet at night outside a house. No money in advance; you settle up on the day. At the end, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Adderbury, briefly
Adderbury is a village in Oxfordshire, situated on the banks of the River Cherwell at an elevation of around 104 metres. Adderbury has a mix of old and new housing, with detached homes being the predominant type, and is located near the villages of East Adderbury, Twyford, and West Adderbury. Adderbury is within commuting distance of Oxford, which is approximately 18.5 miles away, and is also around 61.7 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Oxfordshire, Adderbury included
Throughout OX postcodes, the vans covering Adderbury — a village — work the nearby spots too, West Adderbury and Twyford among them. A postcode starting OX17 3 gets the van to you fastest.
The vehicle remains put. Draining takes place on the spot, whether a drive, a street near Adderbury Library, or a lay-by on the way to Adderbury Lakes. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Banbury West End Lawn Tennis & Squash Club, ring and ask rather than assuming.
Adderbury motorists: the short version
Pour no AdBlue until you have read the cap. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it wherever it stands, wherever across Oxfordshire: switch the car off and ring 0333 366 0103.