Why It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Boyn Hill
Leave the engine and ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Normally, when your motor hasn't turned, it's drained and fully rinsed where the vehicle sits in Boyn Hill. Not happened yet? Below, the rest of the page covers the reasons it occurs and the ways to prevent it for good.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Plenty of newer diesels in Maidenhead, as well as Boyn Hill, run on two fluids; your motor gets only your diesel. Your exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the fumes to clean it, from a separate tank.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, side by side: that is the arrangement on many motors. On others, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. At the pump, the diesel side gets filled constantly. Rarely topped up, AdBlue usually comes out of a bottle, tipped by a driver who has to stop and think which cap to use. The mistake lives in that gap.
Boyn Hill: how AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
On a drive off Clare Road before work, or in the car park outside The North Starf heading home: that's where the hurried top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it is empty, limp mode kicks in.
Unfamiliar cars come next, too. Hire cars, new vehicles and company motors put their fillers in new places, and the hand goes for the cap it 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, and so nothing stops the pour after it has started. Whether it takes place in Highway or the middle of Boyn Hill, it's the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A few seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a drive in North Town or a forecourt in Boyn Hill.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Trust the cap, not its position.
- On many motors, the size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Look inside the fuel flap: many cars carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- Cannot find it next to the diesel inlet? Then check below the bonnet or in your boot — the owner's manual will say where.
- Whoever had it before knows. Check when you collect a rental or fleet car — from Maidenhead's car park, perhaps — rather than when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
The day the light comes on, anywhere around Berkshire, use this routine.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Boyn Hill Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Finish when that tank fills or the bottle runs dry; before that, pour gently using the own spout.
- Before you start the vehicle, shut the cap and look again that the diesel cap was never opened off.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Leave out stage five altogether.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Boyn Hill?
Short list, then. First: your engine remains unstarted. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels as soon as the ignition is switched on — so leave it off. Thinning it with more diesel won't work, because AdBlue sinks to the base rather than blending — and that's where the fuel is drawn from.
The attendants at Esso, BP or any forecourt will usually lend a hand to push your car clear if asked. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive around Boyn Hill.
When your engine has been run already, stop safely then switch the car off. Boyn Hill lies under a mile from the A404(M); there, take the next exit. About how far did it go? Hopping across Boyn Hill is smaller a job than a trip of under 25 miles towards St Albans, and so tell us.
Our arrival around Boyn Hill, and what takes place next
The van comes to the vehicle wherever it has come to rest — your own driveway, beside All Saints, or outside Boyne Hill CofE Infant and Nursery School. We ask what got in, about how much, and whether it has run, since those replies settle the work and our price. Nobody heads out before you've heard our quote by phone.
Your system is then cleaned thoroughly, once your tank is drained. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. The filter cleaned or, if needed, swapped; clean diesel in; then a test of your vehicle. Before we leave, our engineers start it and confirm that it's running correctly.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour once we get there, as long as the motor hasn't run — and the pumps we use are safe on a busy forecourt yet quiet after dark outside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is part of many insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Boyn Hill itself
Boyn Hill is a suburban area in Berkshire, situated inland at an elevation of 51 metres, and is located approximately 26 miles from London. Boyn Hill is characterized by its semi-detached housing and is near several other local places, including Highway, Cox Green, and Tittle Row. Boyn Hill has a population of around 9740 residents and is close to the city of St Albans, which is 23.5 miles away.
AdBlue drains in Boyn Hill and across Berkshire
Throughout SL postcodes, the teams covering Boyn Hill — a residential suburb — work the surrounding spots too, Tittle Row and Cox Green included. A postcode starting SL6 4 gets the van to you fastest.
Your car does not need to move. Draining happens right there, whether a drive, a street near Flora's Garden, or a layby towards The Gullet. Assuming won't help behind Boyn Grove Library, on a boundary, or anywhere awkward to describe; ring and check.
In short, for Boyn Hill drivers
Tip nothing until you have read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere across Berkshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — so leave the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103.