Biggleswade: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Leave the engine and ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Normally, when your engine hasn't turned, it is emptied and thoroughly rinsed where the car sits around Biggleswade. The rest of this page covers why it takes place and how to ensure it does not — useful if you're reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Not one liquid but two: that is what many modern diesels around Biggleswade and Upper Caldecote run, with diesel feeding your motor. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust stream and cleans it.
Each tank has a filler of its own. Some cars put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others have the two side by side under one flap. The diesel side is fuelled at the pump all the time. The AdBlue side is topped up far less commonly, usually from a bottle, and normally by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. Mistakes happen in that gap between them.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place in Biggleswade
It is seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out completely, your vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off High Street before work, or in the car park at The Golden Pheasant on the way home.
Then, the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old car — since a hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
Lastly, the bottle goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in as easily, and once the pour starts, no part halts it. Whether it takes place in Holme or the middle of Biggleswade, it's the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
A few seconds is all these take — so check them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Stratford or a forecourt in Biggleswade.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- The size. On plenty of cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Check for it.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler sits if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before knows. Check when you collect a hire car or company car — at the nearest station's car park, perhaps — not once the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
For the day the warning comes on — anywhere you are across Bedfordshire — a simple routine to follow.
- Switch off after you park — level ground, motor off, and never rushed beside Church Street on the verge.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you've found the filler and read the cap.
- The diesel cap stays on. When the two sit under a flap, confirm it's closed before lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour 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.
Spot at stage two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? So stop just there. Never go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Biggleswade already?
The short order of things, beginning with no starting your motor. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch the car on. Thinning it with extra diesel won't work, since AdBlue sinks to the bottom instead of mixing — and that is where your fuel is drawn from.
On a forecourt — Sainsbury's, BP or another — the staff will normally help push your car clear, when you ask. If you are on your own driveway in Biggleswade, leave the car where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the engine has already run. Biggleswade lies under 10 miles from the A1(M); on it, take the next junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Cambridge, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Biggleswade.
What occurs when our engineers arrive in Biggleswade
Our van comes to the car anywhere it has come to rest — your own drive, near Biggleswade War Memorial, or outside St Andrew's CofE VC Primary School. What fluid got in, the quantity, and if it ran: we ask because the answers set the work and price. Nobody heads out before you have had the price over the phone.
After that: a drain, then a thorough flush of the whole system. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and neither clears away by itself. Hence it matters more. After the fuel filter is cleaned — or renewed, where needed — fresh diesel goes in, and finally your vehicle is tested. The engine is started next and checked to confirm it runs properly, all before our engineers head off.
If the engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork your insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Biggleswade, for a moment
Biggleswade is a town in Bedfordshire, situated on the banks of the River Ivel at an elevation of around 32 metres. Biggleswade lies approximately 40 miles north of London and 18 miles south of Cambridge, with nearby villages including Holme, Lower Caldecote, and Broom. Biggleswade has a population of around 18,537 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Biggleswade is a significant settlement in the area, with a mix of old and new buildings along its riverside setting.
AdBlue drains around Biggleswade, and Bedfordshire beyond
As a riverside town, Biggleswade shares its vans surrounding areas — Lower Caldecote, Broom — all the way through SG postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting SG18 0.
The vehicle remains where it is. Draining takes place right there, whether a drive, a road near The Biggs Theatre, or a layby on the way to Franklin Park. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Providence Chapel.
The short version for Biggleswade motorists
Pour nothing until you have read the cap. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it where it is, wherever around Bedfordshire: switch it off and phone 0333 366 0103.