AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Arborfield Garrison: Why It Occurs and How to Stop It
Pause here a minute if the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Around Arborfield Garrison, catching it before the motor runs usually means a drain and a thorough flush where it stands. Not happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page explains the why it occurs and the ways to prevent it altogether.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Diesel goes to the engine — yet plenty of current diesels seen about Arborfield Garrison and Farley Hill hold another liquid as well. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust gas to clean it.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Some motors put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others place both together behind one flap. Diesel gets filled on every filling station visit, again and again. The AdBlue side is topped up far less often, normally from a bottle, and usually by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. It is in the gap that the mistake happens.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place in Arborfield Garrison
Carelessness seldom explains it. Instead is three things lining up at once.
Haste follows from the warning. Your car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a driveway off Biggs Lane, or on the way home in the car park outside The Bull at Barkham.
Then the car is new. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Nothing stops the pour once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It takes a few seconds, whether in Langley Common or bang in the centre of Arborfield Garrison.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Arborfield or a forecourt in Arborfield Garrison.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- The size. On plenty of cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Check for it.
- Can't see it next to the diesel inlet? Then look below the bonnet or inside your boot — the owner's manual says which.
- The previous driver knows. Ask as you pick up a rental or company car — at Wokingham's car park, perhaps — rather than once the warning comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
For the day the warning comes on — anywhere it is in Berkshire — a routine to follow.
- Turn off once parked — flat ground, motor stopped, and not in a rush beside Princess Marina Drive at the roadside.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap works — after you have found the filler and read the cap.
- Both behind one flap? Then confirm the lid on your diesel filler stays shut ahead of raising the bottle.
- Finish when that tank fills or the bottle runs dry; before that, pour gently through its own spout.
- Before you start the vehicle, close the cap and check a second time that your diesel cap never opened off.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Don't go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Arborfield Garrison?
Short list, then. Top of that: the motor stays unstarted. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels the moment the ignition is switched on — and so keep it off. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
On a forecourt — Pace, Esso or another — the staff will normally help push the car away, when you ask. Your own drive in Arborfield Garrison is the place it stays.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your motor has already run. Come off the M4 — under 3 miles out of Arborfield Garrison — at the first exit. About how far did it go? Hopping across Arborfield Garrison is less work than a run of under 50 miles to Winchester, and so say.
Arborfield Garrison: what occurs when we turn up
The van comes to the car anywhere it stopped — your own drive, beside St Eligius, or outside The Coombes Church of England Primary School. Which liquid got in, the amount, and if it ran: our engineers ask because the replies decide both work and quote. No one heads out before you've had our quote over the phone.
Next: draining, then a thorough flush of the whole system. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. We don't leave until it has been fired up and is running properly.
If the engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents your insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. It is worth looking at your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Arborfield Garrison itself
Arborfield Garrison is a village in Berkshire, situated near lakes and low-lying areas at an elevation of around 52 metres. Arborfield Garrison sits within a network of rural settlements, including nearby Langley Common, Arborfield Cross, and Barkham. Arborfield Garrison has a population of approximately 1419 residents, predominantly living in terraced housing. Arborfield Garrison is located near the city of Winchester, about 28.7 miles away, and is also within commuting distance of London, at around 34.1 miles from the capital.
Arborfield Garrison and Berkshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Arborfield Garrison is a village, and the vans that cover it also work the towns around it, Arborfield Cross and Barkham among them, across the RG postcode area. Fastest of all: give a RG2 9 postcode for the van.
Shifting your car isn't necessary. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Hazebrouck Meadows Country Park, a side street near WW1 Remount Stables: our technicians drain the car where it stands. Guessing doesn't help at the back of Royal Observer Corps, close to a border, or anywhere awkward to pin down; phone and ask.
In short, for Arborfield Garrison people
Always, the cap; after that, the pour. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere in Berkshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless — and so leave the car off and phone 0333 366 0103.