AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Badbury Wick: How It Happens and How to Stop It
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then put this page aside a moment, keep the ignition and engine off, and call 0333 366 0103. Normally, if the motor hasn't turned, it is drained and fully purged where the car sits in Badbury Wick. The remainder of this page covers why it occurs and how to make sure it does not — handy if you are reading before it has happened.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Diesel goes to the engine — yet many modern diesels seen round Badbury Wick and Coate carry a second fluid 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 has a filler of its own. Other vehicles put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others place the two together behind one flap. Filling your diesel side at the petrol pump happens constantly. Far less commonly, the AdBlue side gets filled — mostly from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. The mistake grows in that gap between them.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank happen in Badbury Wick?
Carelessness rarely causes it. What does is three things coming up at once.
Hurry follows from the warning. The car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a drive off Axford Close, or heading home in the car park at The Spotted Cow.
Then your 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 reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spouted bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, once started, keeps on. Badbury or the heart of Badbury Wick: it takes the same few seconds in both.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A few seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Liddington or a forecourt around Badbury Wick.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually is not. Read it instead of going by position.
- Many cars fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Look for it.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by the diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Swindon.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Wiltshire that is.
- Turn off once parked — flat ground, motor stopped, and never in a rush by Homington Avenue 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.
- Leave your 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, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Skip stage five altogether.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Badbury Wick?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the engine. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels as soon as your ignition is switched on — and so keep it off. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is drawn from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it is the BP or the Shell, ask the staff to help roll your car away from the pump. Your own drive around Badbury Wick is where it should stay.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. The next junction is the place to leave if you are on the M4, under a mile from Badbury Wick. Mileage matters — a short hop across Badbury Wick makes a smaller job than heading under 50 miles towards Oxford — so say roughly how far it went.
Badbury Wick: what takes place when we get there
By Badbury Park Primary School, close to Badbury Park Community Hub or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, we come to it. Our engineers ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it has run, because the replies determine the work and the price. That quote comes over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
After that: a drain, then a thorough 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 does not wash out on its own. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Your engine is started next and tested to make sure it runs smoothly, all before our engineers go.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour once we arrive, as long as the motor hasn't run — and the pumps our technicians use are fine on a live forecourt yet quiet at night beside a house. Your insurer will ask for the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both once the job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. Misfuelling cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Badbury Wick, for a moment
Badbury Wick is a small hamlet situated on the shores of a lake in Wiltshire, with a mix of semi-detached housing and rural scenery. Badbury Wick sits at an elevation of 118 metres, surrounded by rolling countryside and nearby villages such as Badbury and Medbourne. Badbury Wick is located near the city of Oxford, approximately 25 miles away, and is about 69 miles from London. Badbury Wick has a population of around 726 residents, living in a tranquil lakeside setting.
AdBlue drains around Badbury Wick, and Wiltshire beyond
Over SN postcodes, the vans that cover Badbury Wick — a rural hamlet — work the surrounding spots too, Liden and Medbourne among them. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting SN4 0.
Your car stays where it is. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street close to Badbury Park Library, a lay-by on the way to Day House Copse, a drive. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Day House Lane Stone Circle? Close to a county line? Asking beats guessing, so ring.
The short version for Badbury Wick people
Tip no AdBlue until you've read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere around Wiltshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless — and so leave the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103.