Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Bainton: Why It Occurs
Keep the motor and ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Usually, when your engine hasn't turned, it is emptied and fully cleaned where the vehicle is in Bainton. The remainder of this page explains why it takes place and how to ensure it does not — handy if you are reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Many modern diesels on the roads round Bainton and Hethe carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust stream and cleans it.
There is a filler for every tank. Under one flap, side by side: that is the layout on a lot of vehicles. On others, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. Diesel goes in on every forecourt visit, again and again. Seldom filled, AdBlue normally goes in out of a bottle, poured by a driver who has to stop and think which filler it needs. It is in that gap that the mistake happens.
Bainton: how AdBlue in the diesel tank happens
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Hurry comes from the warning. The vehicle warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a drive off Banbury Road, or heading home in the car park at the pub in the village.
Then the car is new. 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.
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 after it has started. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Bainton or out in Stoke Lyne.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Hardwick or a forecourt in Bainton, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue caps are often blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually don't.
- On plenty of vehicles, size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- Cannot find it next to your diesel inlet? In that case check beneath the bonnet or inside your boot — the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before knows. Check as you pick up a rental or company car — from Bicester North's car park, perhaps — rather than when the light appears.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
Anywhere in Oxfordshire the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Fringford Road, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park then switch off first.
- 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.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start your car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Step five is off limits.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Bainton?
The short order of things, beginning with not starting your motor. Keep your ignition off too, because on plenty of diesels switching it on by itself starts your fuel pump. Diluting it with extra diesel won't work, because AdBlue sinks to the bottom instead of blending — and that's where your fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — Esso, Gulf or another — the staff will normally help roll the vehicle away, if you ask. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive around Bainton.
Already run? Stop once it is safe, then turn off. Come off the M40 — under 3 miles out of Bainton — at the first junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Oxford, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Bainton.
What takes place when our technicians get there around Bainton
Anywhere your car came to rest, whether outside Gagle Brook Primary School, beside Saint Lawrence or on your own drive, the van comes to it. Our engineers ask what got in, about how much, and whether it has run, since the answers decide this work and our quote. The price is given over the phone, before any van leaves.
Your system is then flushed thoroughly, once that tank is drained. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and neither clears away unaided. Hence it matters more. Filter flushed or, if it must be, replaced; fresh diesel in; then a test of your vehicle. Then our technicians fire it up and confirm it runs smoothly before leaving.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour once we arrive, provided the engine hasn't run — and the pumps our technicians use are fine on a busy forecourt yet quiet after dark beside a house. Nothing in advance; you settle up on the day. At the end, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Bainton itself
Bainton is a small hamlet in Oxfordshire, situated inland at an elevation of 106 metres, approximately 13.6 miles from Oxford and 53.2 miles from London. Bainton is characterized by its terraced housing and is located near other small settlements such as Stoke Lyne and Caversfield. Bainton has a population of around 559 people and is a quiet residential area. Bainton sits within the wider South East region of England, near the city of Oxford.
AdBlue drains round Bainton, and Oxfordshire beyond
Over OX postcodes, our vans that cover Bainton — a rural hamlet — work the surrounding locations too, Bucknell and Caversfield included. Fastest of all: give a OX27 8 postcode to the van.
Your car stays put. Wherever it stands — beside Saint Peter, on a lay-by heading to Stoke Little Wood, at home — that's where it is drained. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Bucknell Village Hall.
Bainton drivers: the short version
Pour no AdBlue until you've read the cap. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it wherever it is, wherever across Oxfordshire: switch it off and call 0333 366 0103.