Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Aylesbury: Why It Occurs
Leave the engine and ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Caught before your motor runs, it is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Aylesbury. Not happened yet? Further down, the page covers the why it happens and the ways to avoid it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel goes to the motor — but plenty of modern diesels seen about Aylesbury and Elmhurst carry another liquid too. 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 comes with one filler of its own. Some cars keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty more place the two side by side behind one flap. Diesel goes in on each forecourt visit, week in, week out. Seldom filled, AdBlue normally comes out of a bottle, poured by someone who has to stop and think which cap it needs. That gap is where the error lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Aylesbury: how it happens
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
Hurry follows from the warning. The vehicle tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a drive off Britannia Street, or heading home in the car park at The Harrow.
New-to-you motors are next, as well. Rentals, new cars and company cars place their fillers differently, and habit goes for the cap it used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the tip once it has started. Whether it happens in California or the middle of Aylesbury, it's the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Check these first, at a forecourt in Aylesbury or a drive over in Victoria Park. Seconds, that's all.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones are often blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally do not.
- On many cars, the size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler is if it is not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside the nearest station? Ask the person who drove the vehicle last before leaving, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
When the light goes on, anywhere in Buckinghamshire, follow this routine.
- Turn off once parked — flat ground, motor off, and not in a rush by High Street at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the vehicle on.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Before starting the car, close the cap and look again that the diesel cap never opened off.
Discover during the second or third step that the bottle went into the wrong filler? That is where you stop. Don't carry on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Aylesbury?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your motor. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels the moment your ignition is switched on — so leave it off. Filling up with diesel will not thin it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the base of that tank, right where fuel is taken from.
Ask the attendants to help roll the car away from the petrol pump if you are at a forecourt — the Tesco, the BP or anywhere else. Your own drive around Aylesbury is the place it stays.
Already started? Stop when it is safe, then turn off. Leave the M40 — under 15 miles out of Aylesbury — at the next exit. A short hop across Aylesbury is a smaller job than a run towards Milton Keynes, under 25 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
What happens when our engineers turn up in Aylesbury
Anywhere the vehicle has stopped, whether outside Elmhurst School, near Marks & Spencer or on your own drive, the van travels to it. Our technicians ask what was put in, about how much, and if it's run, because those replies settle this work and our quote. The price is given on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
Your system is then flushed thoroughly, once your tank is emptied. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and none of it washes out by itself. Hence it counts more. A test comes at the end: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and your filter is flushed or replaced if necessary. Before we go, our engineers fire it up and confirm that it is running properly.
With pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the motor has not run need roughly half an hour once our technicians arrive. No money in advance; you settle up that day. At the end, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. While we travel, take a look at your policy; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Aylesbury itself
Aylesbury is a town situated on the banks of the River Thame in Buckinghamshire, with a mix of old and new buildings reflecting its long history. Aylesbury sits at an elevation of 92 metres, about 36 miles northwest of London, and is surrounded by nearby places such as California, Walton, and Manor Park. Aylesbury has a population of approximately 35,507 people, predominantly living in terraced housing. Aylesbury is also close to the larger city of Milton Keynes, which is about 16 miles away.
Aylesbury and Buckinghamshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Aylesbury is a riverside town, and the vans that cover it also work the places around it, Walton and Manor Park among them, across the HP postcode area. Quickest of all: quote a HP20 1 postcode for our van.
The vehicle remains put. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Vale Park, a side street close to Hale Leys: we drain the car where it stands. Awkward to explain, like the back of Saint Joseph? By a border? Asking is better than assuming, so ring.
In short, for Aylesbury drivers
First, the cap; after that, the tip. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it sits, anywhere in Buckinghamshire.