Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Castlethorpe
Stop reading for a moment if your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and ring 0333 366 0103. In Castlethorpe, catching it before the motor turns normally leaves a drain and a full flush on the spot. The remainder of this page explains why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't — useful if you are reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Many newer diesels on the roads around Castlethorpe and Church End carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, and there a spray treats the gas.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the layout on many motors. On others, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. Topping up your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on constantly. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less regularly. It is in that gap that the mistake lives.
Castlethorpe: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the car goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off South Street before work, or in the car park outside The Navigation Inn on the way home.
Then your car is strange. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Nothing halts the tip after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it happens in Cosgrove or the middle of Castlethorpe, it's the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
A few seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Haversham or a forecourt in Castlethorpe.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- Many motors give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Look for it.
- Cannot find it next to your diesel inlet? In that case look beneath the bonnet or in your boot — the handbook will say where.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Wolverton.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
On the day the light appears — anywhere you are in Buckinghamshire — a simple routine to follow.
- Not in a rush on the side of Bens Close, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park and switch off first.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you've located your filler and read it.
- The diesel cap stays on. When both share a flap, confirm it is shut before lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start the vehicle: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Do not go on to step five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Castlethorpe?
The short order of things, beginning with not starting your engine. Leave your ignition off too, since on many diesels switching it on by itself runs the pump. Thinning it with more diesel fails, since AdBlue settles to the bottom instead of blending — and that is where the fuel is sucked from.
On a forecourt — Essar, Tesco or any other — the staff will usually help roll the car away, if you ask. Your own drive around Castlethorpe is where it stays.
When your motor has run already, pull over safely and switch it off. The next junction means where to leave when you are on the M1, under 3 miles from Castlethorpe. A short hop across Castlethorpe is a smaller job than a run towards Milton Keynes, under 5 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
What occurs when we get there around Castlethorpe
By Castlethorpe First School, near Castlethorpe Village Hall or on your own driveway: wherever the car has stopped, we come to it. What fluid went in, the quantity, and whether it ran: we ask because those replies decide the work and price. You get that quote by phone, before anyone sets off.
Then the tank is cleared and the system cleaned thoroughly. Much more than with petrol, it matters here: the crystals build up, certain metals are attacked, and nothing washes out unaided, however long it is left. Testing comes at the end: before that, clean diesel is added, and the fuel filter is cleaned or replaced if necessary. We do not leave until it has been started and is running smoothly.
If your motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents an insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Castlethorpe itself
Castlethorpe is a village situated on the banks of the River Great Ouse in Buckinghamshire, with a mix of rural and riverside scenery. Castlethorpe has a relatively low elevation of around 85 metres and is located near the larger town of Milton Keynes. Castlethorpe remains a small and quiet community, with predominantly detached housing and a population of approximately 698 residents. Castlethorpe is also close to other nearby villages such as Cosgrove and Hanslope.
Castlethorpe and Buckinghamshire: AdBlue drains across the area
As a village, Castlethorpe shares its vans nearby places — Furtho, Hanslope — right across MK postcodes and the wider area beyond. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting MK19 7.
There's no need to move the car. Anywhere it stands — near Castlethorpe SS Simon and Jude, in a lay-by en route to The Floodplain Forest Nature Reserve, on a drive — that is where it gets emptied. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Site of Castlethorpe Castle, ring and ask instead of assuming.
Castlethorpe motorists: the short version
Read the cap before you tip. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere around Buckinghamshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — so leave it off and call 0333 366 0103.