Blewbury: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and the ignition off and call 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Blewbury. The rest of this page covers why it takes place and how to make sure it does not — useful if you are reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Plenty of newer diesels in Upton, like those in Blewbury, carry on two liquids; the engine gets only the diesel. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it.
Each tank has its own filler. Plenty of vehicles have a single flap for both, whereas others move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in on each filling station visit, week in, week out. Seldom filled, AdBlue normally goes in out of a bottle, poured by a driver who must stop and think what filler to use. The mistake grows in that gap between the two.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Blewbury: how it happens
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
Haste comes from the warning. Your car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a driveway off London Road, or on the way home in the car park at The Blueberry.
Then, the hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old vehicle — since a rental car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not.
Third, the spout fits: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in just as readily, and after the tip starts, nothing stops it. Whether it happens in Woodway or the middle of Blewbury, it's the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Tadley or a forecourt in Blewbury, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Check the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally are not.
- On plenty of cars, the size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Look inside your fuel flap: plenty of vehicles have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler is if it is not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park at Didcot Parkway? Check with the person who drove the car last before you set off, rather than once the light goes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Oxfordshire that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Dibleys, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park then switch off properly.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" aloud as unscrewing it. It sounds daft. It does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where both share a flap, confirm it's shut before the bottle comes up.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Do not go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Blewbury?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your motor. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch the car on. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is pulled from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it is the Shell or the Tesco Filling Station, ask the attendants to help push the car clear of the pump. At home around Blewbury? Then your car stays put.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. On the M4, under 10 miles from Blewbury, that means the next junction. About how far did it go? Hopping across Blewbury is smaller work than a run of under 15 miles to Oxford, so say.
What occurs when we arrive in Blewbury
Our van reaches your car anywhere it has come to rest — your own driveway, beside St Michael's Church, or by Blewbury Church of England Primary School. Which liquid was put in, the quantity, and whether it ran: our technicians ask because the replies decide the work and price. You get that price by phone, before anyone sets off.
Then that tank is emptied and the fuel system cleaned thoroughly. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own. Testing is last: before that, clean diesel goes in, and the filter is cleaned or changed if necessary. The motor is fired up next and tested to make sure it runs smoothly, all before our engineers head off.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour once we get there, provided the engine hasn't run — and the pumps our technicians use are fine on a live forecourt yet quiet after dark outside a house. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork your insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. It's worth looking at your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Blewbury
Blewbury is a village in south Oxfordshire, situated in a rural area near the Berkshire border. Blewbury sits at an elevation of around 73 metres, with the village centre surrounded by open countryside and woodland. Blewbury is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock and is located near other small villages such as Aston Tirrold and Aston Upthorpe. Blewbury remains a quiet, residential community with a population of around 1104 people.
AdBlue drains round Blewbury, and Oxfordshire beyond
Blewbury is a rural village, and the vans that cover it also work the towns near it, Aston Tirrold and Aston Upthorpe among them, across the OX postcode area. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting OX11 9.
The vehicle does not need to move. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street close to Blewbury Croquet Club, a lay-by on the way to Forty Cross, a driveway. Tricky to pin down, like the back of Blewbury Village Hall? By a border? Checking beats guessing, and so ring.
The short version for Blewbury motorists
Pour nothing till you have read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Keep the vehicle switched off and call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, across Oxfordshire.