Bourne End: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Keep your engine and ignition off and call 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. In Bourne End, finding it before the engine runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush where it stands. Not happened yet? Further down, the page covers the reasons it occurs and the how to avoid it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Many newer diesels around Fern, as well as Bourne End, run on two fluids; the engine gets only the diesel. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, and there a spray cleans the gas.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Under one flap, side by side: that is the arrangement on a lot of motors. On others, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. At the pump, the diesel side gets filled constantly. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less often. The mistake lives in that gap.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Bourne End: how it happens
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
Haste follows from the warning. Your car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a driveway off Wakeman Road, or heading home in the car park outside KEG Craft Beer.
Then the 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 hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Lastly, the bottle goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in as readily, and once the pour begins, nothing stops it. It takes seconds, be it in Well End or bang in the heart of Bourne End.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Whether a Bourne End forecourt or a drive over in Hedsor, take a couple of seconds over these before any is poured in.
- Position can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue ones are often blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally don't.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- Check inside your fuel flap: many vehicles carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by your diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The previous driver knows. Check as you collect a rental or company car — at the nearest station's car park, say — not once the warning comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
Wherever in Buckinghamshire the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Wharf Lane.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" out loud while unscrewing it. It seems silly. It does the trick.
- Both behind one flap? Then make sure the lid on your diesel filler stays shut ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the vehicle, shut the cap and look again that the diesel cap was never opened off.
Discover at the second or third step that AdBlue went into the diesel tank? That is where you stop. Don't go on to step five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Bourne End?
Short list, then. Top of it: the motor stays unstarted. Don't switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Thinning it with more diesel fails, because AdBlue settles to the base rather than blending — and that is where your fuel is drawn from.
The attendants at BP, Shell or another forecourt will usually lend a hand pushing the vehicle away if asked. If you're on your own drive in Bourne End, leave it where it sits.
Already run? Stop when it's safe, then switch off. On the M40, under 3 miles from Bourne End, that means the next junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards St Albans, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Bourne End.
Bourne End: what takes place when our engineers get there
Outside Claytons Primary School, near Saint Dunstan's Church or on your own driveway: wherever the car has stopped, we come to it. We ask what got in, about how much, and whether it has run, since those replies settle the work and our quote. During the call itself, you are told our quote — ahead of anything else.
The system is then cleaned thoroughly, once that tank is emptied. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Before we leave, our engineers start the car and check that it is running smoothly.
If the engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Before we get there, take a look at your policy; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Bourne End itself
Bourne End is a village situated on the banks of the River Thames in Buckinghamshire, with a low elevation of around 30 metres. Bourne End is located near the villages of Well End, Cores End, and Wooburn, and is approximately 25.6 miles from London. Bourne End has a population of around 2835 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Bourne End sits in a scenic riverside setting, close to the city of St Albans, which is about 20 miles away.
Bourne End and Buckinghamshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Bourne End is a village, and our vans that cover it also work the towns around it, Cores End and Wooburn among them, across the SL postcode area. A postcode starting SL8 5 gets our van to you fastest.
Moving the car is not needed. Anywhere it sits — beside Bourne End Library, on a lay-by heading to Peace Garden, at home — that is where it is emptied. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Bourne End Community Centre, ring and ask instead of assuming.
The short version for Bourne End people
Read the cap before you tip. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave the car off and ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it waits, anywhere across Buckinghamshire.