Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Bugbrooke: Why It Happens
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case put this page aside a moment, leave your ignition and motor off, and ring 0333 366 0103. A drain and a full flush, carried out right where your car sits around Bugbrooke, is usually all it needs when caught before your engine runs. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Plenty of modern diesels around Fosters Booth, like those in Bugbrooke, carry on two fluids; your motor gets just the diesel. Its own tank holds it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, and there a spray treats the fumes.
Every tank comes with one filler of its own. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Filling your diesel side at the pump goes on constantly. The AdBlue side is filled far less often, usually from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. The slip lives in that gap.
Bugbrooke: how AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place
It's rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a drive off The Paddocks before work, or in the car park outside The Bakers Arms heading home: that's where the rushed top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it's gone, limp mode kicks in.
The old car's filler is where your hand reaches — but a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That is the second factor: an unfamiliar vehicle.
A spout-topped bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, after begun, carries on. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Bugbrooke or out in Nether Heyford.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Pattishall or a forecourt around Bugbrooke, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally isn't. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside your fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on many vehicles. Check for it.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler is if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- The previous driver will know. Ask as you collect a hire car or company car — at Northampton's car park, say — not once the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
Wherever across Northamptonshire the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Not in a rush on the side of High Street, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park and switch off properly.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap works — after you've found your filler and read the cap.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- 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 — making sure your diesel filler stayed shut throughout. After that, start the car.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Don't go on to stage five.
Bugbrooke: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Don't start the motor: that is where the short order of things starts. Leave your ignition off as well, since on plenty of diesels it alone starts the fuel pump. Topping up with diesel won't dilute it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of the tank, right where the fuel is drawn from.
The staff at the nearest petrol station, Red Lion Truck Stop or another forecourt will usually help pushing the vehicle away when you ask. If you are on your own drive in Bugbrooke, leave the car where it sits.
Where your engine has been run already, pull over somewhere safe then turn the vehicle off. Come off the M1 — under 3 miles out of Bugbrooke — at the first junction. Mileage counts — a quick hop across Bugbrooke makes a smaller job than heading under 25 miles towards Milton Keynes — so say roughly how far it went.
What happens when our technicians arrive around Bugbrooke
Anywhere the car came to rest, whether by Bugbrooke Community Primary School, beside Jesus Fellowship Church or at home, the van comes to it. What fluid went in, the quantity, and if it ran: we ask because the answers decide both work and price. You hear that price on the phone, before anybody heads out.
After that: draining, then a full flush of the whole system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more here than with petrol. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Before leaving, we fire it up and check that it is running smoothly.
Using pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your engine hasn't run need roughly half an hour once we arrive. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It's worth looking at your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Bugbrooke and where it is
Bugbrooke is a village situated on the banks of the River Nene in Northamptonshire, with a mix of old and new housing, predominantly detached homes. Bugbrooke sits at an elevation of 86 metres, within a short drive of Milton Keynes and approximately 61.5 miles northwest of London. Bugbrooke is surrounded by other villages, including Nether Heyford, Upper Heyford, and Kislingbury, and has a population of around 1812 residents. Bugbrooke remains a quiet riverside community with a strong sense of local identity.
AdBlue drains across Northamptonshire, Bugbrooke included
Bugbrooke is a village, and the teams that cover it also work the towns near it, Upper Heyford and Kislingbury among them, across the NN postcode area. Fastest of all: quote a NN7 3 postcode for the van.
Your car doesn't need to shift. We drain it where it is — a side street near Bugbrooke Village Hall, a lay-by on the way to Millennium Green, a driveway. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of St. Michael & All Angels Church.
For Bugbrooke motorists, the short version
Read the cap before you pour. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it wherever it is, anywhere in Northamptonshire: switch the car off and ring 0333 366 0103.