Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Barton-le-Clay
Keep your motor and ignition off and call 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. A drain plus a thorough flush, carried out right where your car stands in Barton-le-Clay, is usually all it needs if caught before the motor runs. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the page covers the why it occurs and the ways to prevent it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Diesel goes to your motor — but plenty of modern diesels seen around Barton-le-Clay and Hexton hold another fluid as well. Your exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the gas to fresh them, from a separate tank.
Every tank comes with a filler of its own. Plenty of cars share a single flap for the two, whereas others put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Topping up the diesel side at the pump happens all the time. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less frequently, usually from a bottle, and normally by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. Mistakes happen in that gap between them.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank happen in Barton-le-Clay?
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
Hurry follows from the warning. The vehicle warns 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 Bedford Road, or heading home in the car park outside Royal Oak.
Unfamiliar cars are next, too. Hire cars, new vehicles and company vehicles put their fillers differently, and habit reaches for the cap 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 pour once it has started. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Barton-le-Clay or out in Church End.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Be it a Barton-le-Clay forecourt or a drive out in Higham Gobion, take a few seconds over these before anything is poured in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually isn't. Read it instead of going by position.
- Many motors give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Open the filler flap and look for a label — plenty of motors show what belongs in each filler right there.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by the diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park at Harlington? Ask whoever drove it last before leaving, not when the light goes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
On the day the light appears — wherever it is across Bedfordshire — a routine to use.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Luton Road.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap works — once you have found your filler and read the cap.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where both sit under a flap, make sure it is shut before the bottle comes up.
- Stop once your tank fills or the bottle is empty; before that, tip slowly using the own spout.
- Only after that, start the car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Discover during the second or third step that AdBlue went in the wrong tank? That is where you stop. Step five stays off limits.
Barton-le-Clay: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
The short order of things, beginning with no starting your engine. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch the vehicle on. Thinning it with more diesel fails, because AdBlue sinks to the base rather than blending — and that's where your fuel is drawn from.
The staff at J Sainsbury Service Station, Texaco or any forecourt will normally lend a hand pushing the car clear when asked. On your own drive in Barton-le-Clay? So your car remains where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your motor has already run. Come off the M1 — under 5 miles out of Barton-le-Clay — at the next exit. Mileage counts — a short hop across Barton-le-Clay is a smaller job than heading under 15 miles to Milton Keynes — so tell us about how far it went.
When our technicians get there in Barton-le-Clay, what takes place?
Our engineers come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Ramsey Manor Lower School, close to Barton Methodist Church or on your own driveway. Both the work and the price rest on three answers — what fluid, what amount, and if it's run — so our technicians ask. That price is given on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
Then your tank is emptied and the system cleaned thoroughly. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and none of that washes out unaided. That is why it counts more. After your filter has been cleaned — or replaced, if needed — fresh diesel goes in, and finally the vehicle gets tested. The motor is fired up next and checked to make sure it runs properly, all before our engineers leave.
Unstarted vehicles usually need a half-hour visit after arrival. The equipment is fine on a busy filling station, and quiet enough for a driveway after dark. Nothing in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Misfuelling cover is included in many insurance policies — so use the wait to look at yours.
About Barton-le-Clay
Barton-le-Clay is a village situated in the eastern part of Bedfordshire, near the River Great Ouse, with an elevation of around 69 metres. Barton-le-Clay has a mix of old and new housing, but predominantly features detached homes. Barton-le-Clay is located near other small settlements, including Church End and Sharpenhoe, and is within commuting distance of larger towns like Milton Keynes. Barton-le-Clay has a population of approximately 2484 residents.
AdBlue drains across Bedfordshire, Barton-le-Clay included
Over MK postcodes, our vans covering Barton-le-Clay — a village — work the nearby places too, Streatley and Sharpenhoe included. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting MK45 4.
Moving the vehicle is not needed. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Barton Hills National Nature Reserve, a side street near Barton Library: we drain it where it sits. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Barton Rovers FC, ring and ask rather than assuming.
For Barton-le-Clay motorists, the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere in Bedfordshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — and so leave it off and phone 0333 366 0103.