Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Burnham: Why It Occurs
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then set this page down for now, leave the ignition and motor off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Burnham. Not happened yet? Below, the page explains the why it happens and the how to avoid it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Plenty of current diesels on the roads around Burnham and Rose Hill carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. Your exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the fumes to clean them, from a separate tank.
Every tank comes with a filler of its own. Plenty of motors have a single flap for the two, while others put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in on every forecourt visit, week in, week out. Much less frequently, the AdBlue side gets topped up — mostly from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. The mistake grows in the gap between the two.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank happens in Burnham
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Dropmore Road before work, or in the car park outside The Bee on the way home.
Then the vehicle is strange. A hire car, a new motor 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.
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 once it has started. Lent or the heart of Burnham: it is the same few seconds in both.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Check these before pouring, on a forecourt around Burnham or a drive out in Britwell. Seconds, no more.
- Position misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually don't.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler is if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside the nearest station, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
Wherever in Buckinghamshire the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Long Drive, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park then switch off properly.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you've found your filler and read it.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the vehicle on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Never carry on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Burnham?
Do not start your engine: that's where the short order of things starts. The fuel pump runs on many diesels the moment your ignition goes on — so keep it off. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is drawn from.
On a forecourt — Esso, Shell or any other — the attendants will normally help roll the vehicle away, if you ask. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive around Burnham.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Burnham lies under 3 miles from the Huntercombe Spur; there, take the first exit. About how far did it go? Crossing Burnham is smaller work than a run of under 25 miles towards St Albans, and so say.
When our engineers get there in Burnham, what occurs?
Wherever the vehicle came to rest, be it outside St Peter's Church of England Primary School, near British Legion or at home, the van comes to it. Which fluid was put in, the amount, and if it ran: our technicians ask since those replies set both work and price. During the call itself, you hear our price — ahead of anything else.
Draining your tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the fuel system. With AdBlue that counts 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. The filter cleaned or, where it must be, replaced; fresh diesel in; and then a test of your vehicle. We do not leave until it has been started and is running properly.
Using pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the motor has not run take roughly half an hour once our technicians arrive. The insurer will ask for an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both once this job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Burnham
Burnham is a suburban area in Buckinghamshire, situated inland at an elevation of around 55 metres. Burnham lies approximately 22.9 miles west of London and is close to nearby places such as Lent, Lent Rise, and Hitchambury. Burnham has a population of around 4977 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Burnham is also near the city of St Albans, which is about 20.2 miles away.
AdBlue drains around Burnham, and Buckinghamshire beyond
Lent Rise and Hitchambury are among the places around Burnham, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, throughout SL postcodes. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting SL1 8.
Moving your car is not needed. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street near St. Peter's Church, Burnham, a lay-by on the way to Burnham Park, a driveway. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of The 1878 Stadium, ring and ask instead of assuming.
For Burnham drivers, the short version
Pour nothing till you've read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave the car off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it waits, anywhere around Buckinghamshire.