AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Ascott-under-Wychwood: Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It
Keep your engine and ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Usually, when the engine hasn't run, it is drained and fully purged where your car is around Ascott-under-Wychwood. Not happened yet? Below, the page covers the why it occurs and the ways to avoid it altogether.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Not one fluid but two: that's what plenty of newer diesels around Ascott-under-Wychwood and Shipton-under-Wychwood carry, with diesel feeding your motor. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Every tank has one filler of its own. Under one flap, side by side: that is the arrangement on a lot of cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. Diesel gets filled at each forecourt call-out, again and again. Much less regularly, the AdBlue side is topped up — mostly from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. The mistake grows in the gap between the two.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank occur around Ascott-under-Wychwood?
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
On a drive off The Green before work, or in the car park at Swan Inn on the way home: that is where the rushed top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it is gone, limp mode kicks in.
Then the car is strange. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Nothing stops the tip after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it happens in Ascott d Oyley or the middle of Ascott-under-Wychwood, it is the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Lyneham or a forecourt around Ascott-under-Wychwood, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Trust the cap, not its position.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- Look inside your fuel flap: many cars carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- Can't see it beside your diesel inlet? In that case check beneath the bonnet or in the boot — the owner's manual says which.
- Whoever had it before knows. Check when you pick up a hire car or fleet car — from the nearest station's car park, say — not once the warning comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
On the day the warning appears — wherever you are around Oxfordshire — a routine to follow.
- Not in a rush on the side of Church View, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park and switch off first.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" aloud while unscrewing it. It sounds daft. It does the trick.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the vehicle, shut the cap and check again that your diesel cap was never opened off.
Discover during the second or third stage that the bottle went into the wrong filler? That is where you stop. Step five is off limits.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Ascott-under-Wychwood already?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your engine. Don't switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Thinning it with extra diesel won't work, since AdBlue sinks to the base instead of mixing — and that is where the fuel is pulled from.
Ask the staff to help push your car away from the petrol pump if you're at a forecourt — the Gulf, the Milton Service Station or anywhere else. If you are on your own drive in Ascott-under-Wychwood, leave the vehicle where it is.
Already run? Pull over once it's safe, then switch off. On the M40, under 25 miles from Ascott-under-Wychwood, that means the next junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Oxford, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Ascott-under-Wychwood.
Our arrival in Ascott-under-Wychwood, and what happens next
Our technicians come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Wychwood Church of England Primary School, near Holy Trinity or on your own drive. Which liquid went in, the amount, and whether it ran: we ask since those answers decide the work and price. On the phone call itself, you are told the quote — before anything else.
Then that tank is drained and the system flushed thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more here than with petrol. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Before we leave, we start the car and make sure that it is running correctly.
If your engine hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Nothing upfront; you settle up that day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Ascott-under-Wychwood and where it is
Ascott-under-Wychwood is a small village in Oxfordshire, situated on the banks of a river at an elevation of around 100 metres. Ascott-under-Wychwood lies near the villages of Ascott d'Oyley and Ascott Earl, and is approximately 15 miles from Oxford. Ascott-under-Wychwood has a population of around 550 people, predominantly living in semi-detached houses. Ascott-under-Wychwood is also within commuting distance of London, being about 66 miles away.
Ascott-under-Wychwood and Oxfordshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Ascott Earl and Chilson are among the towns near Ascott-under-Wychwood, a village, that the same vans cover, throughout OX postcodes. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting OX7 6.
There's no need to move the car. We drain it where it is — a side street close to Tiddy Hall, a lay-by on the way to Memorial Playing Field, a driveway. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Ascott Earl motte and bailey castle? Close to a border? Asking is better than assuming, so ring.
Ascott-under-Wychwood drivers: the short version
Read the cap before you pour. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere across Oxfordshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless — and so leave the car off then phone 0333 366 0103.