AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Boughton: Why It Occurs and How to Stop It
Leave your motor and ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. A drain and a full flush, carried out right where the car stands around Boughton, is usually all it takes when caught before the engine runs. Here before the event? In that case what follows explains how it comes about and what to prevent it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
No single liquid but two: that is how plenty of modern diesels around Boughton and Ewerby Thorpe carry, with diesel feeding the engine. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Other vehicles keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others have the two side by side behind one flap. At the pump, your diesel side is topped up all the time. Seldom filled, AdBlue usually comes out of a bottle, tipped by a driver who has to stop and think what cap to use. The mistake lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank happens in Boughton
It's seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Hurry comes from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a driveway off Fox Hall Lane, or on the way home in the car park outside Finch Hatton Arms.
Then your car is new. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, once started, keeps on. Whether it happens in Asgarby or the middle of Boughton, it is the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Check these first, at a forecourt around Boughton or a driveway over in Kirkby la Thorpe. Seconds, no more.
- Position misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones are often blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually do not.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Lift the filler flap and check for a label — plenty of motors show what belongs in each filler right there.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler sits if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Heckington? Check with whoever drove the car last before leaving, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
For the day the light appears — anywhere you are across Lincolnshire — a simple routine to follow.
- Switch off after you park — flat ground, engine off, and not rushed beside Sleaford Road at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- The diesel cap remains on. When the two sit under a flap, confirm it is closed before lifting the bottle.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Do not go on to step five.
Boughton: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with not starting your engine. Do not switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel won't dilute it: instead, AdBlue drops to the bottom of that tank, right where the fuel is drawn from.
On a forecourt — Power, Tesco or any other — the staff will usually help push your car away, when you ask. On your own drive around Boughton? So the car stays where it is.
Already run? Stop when it is sensible, then switch off. On the Great North Road, under 50 miles from Boughton, that means the next junction. About how far did it go? Hopping across Boughton is smaller a job than a trip of under 25 miles towards Lincoln, and so tell us.
Boughton: what happens when our engineers get there
The van reaches your car anywhere it stopped — your own driveway, beside St. Andrew, or outside Heckington St Andrew's Church of England School. What liquid was put in, the amount, and if it ran: our engineers ask because the answers set the work and price. Nobody heads out before you've heard the price over the phone.
Emptying that tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the system. 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 does not wash out on its own. After your filter has been flushed — or replaced, if needed — clean diesel goes in, and finally your vehicle is tested. Your engine is started next and checked to be sure it runs smoothly, all before we go.
Unstarted vehicles mostly need a half-hour job from the moment we arrive. The equipment is safe on a live filling station, and hushed enough for a driveway late at night. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork an insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. It is worth checking your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Boughton itself
Boughton is a small hamlet in Lincolnshire, situated in a low-lying area of the East Midlands at an elevation of around 10 metres. Boughton lies near several other small settlements, including Asgarby, Howell, and Ewerby, and is approximately 18.6 miles from the city of Lincoln. Boughton has a population of around 500 people, predominantly living in detached houses.
AdBlue drains around Boughton, and Lincolnshire beyond
Howell and Ewerby are among the towns around Boughton, a rural hamlet, that the same teams cover, throughout NG postcodes. Give a postcode that starts NG34 9, and the van arrives quickest.
The vehicle stays where it is. The drain happens on the spot, whether a drive, a street near St Oswald, or a lay-by towards Sardesons Plantation. Tricky to explain, like the back of Ewerby Reading Room? By a border? Asking is better than assuming, and so ring.
Boughton drivers: the short version
Pour nothing until you've read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless, leave the vehicle off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it sits, anywhere across Lincolnshire.