Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Chalgrove: Why It Occurs
Pause reading a minute when the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and ring 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, done just where the car stands around Chalgrove, is usually all it needs when found before your engine runs. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel goes to your engine — yet plenty of modern diesels seen around Chalgrove and Brightwell Baldwin carry another liquid as well. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Many of motors have a single flap for the two, whereas some move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled on every forecourt call-out, again and again. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less commonly. The error lives in that gap.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Chalgrove: how it occurs
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
On a drive off Hardings before work, or in the car park at The Crown heading home: that's where the rushed top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low the car warns you, and if it is empty, limp mode kicks in.
Next, your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old vehicle — since a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
Nothing halts the pour 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 Warpsgrove or the middle of Chalgrove, it is the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A couple of seconds is all these take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Newington or a forecourt around Chalgrove.
- Check the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually aren't.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- Look inside your fuel flap: many vehicles carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by your diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at Culham, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
Wherever across Oxfordshire the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of The Green.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, yes, but it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start your car, close the cap and look a second time that your diesel cap was never came off.
Find at stage two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? So stop just there. Don't go on to stage five.
Chalgrove: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Don't start your engine: that's how the short order of things begins. Do not switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is pulled from.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it is the BP or the Murco, ask the staff to help roll the vehicle clear of the petrol pump. If you are on your own drive around Chalgrove, leave the car where it is.
When your motor has been run by now, pull over somewhere safe then turn the vehicle off. Come off the M40 — under 5 miles out of Chalgrove — at the next junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Oxford, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Chalgrove.
When we get there in Chalgrove, what happens?
Wherever the car came to rest, whether by Chalgrove Community Primary School, near Chalgrove Village Hall or on your own drive, the van comes to it. What liquid went in, the amount, and if it ran: our engineers ask since those answers decide the work and quote. You get that price by phone, before anyone heads out.
Then that tank is drained and your system flushed thoroughly. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and none of that washes away by itself. Hence it counts more. A test is at the end: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and the fuel filter is flushed or changed if necessary. The engine is fired up next and checked to be sure it runs correctly, all before we head off.
If your engine hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. No money upfront; you settle up that day. At the end, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is included in many insurance policies — and so use the wait to check yours.
About Chalgrove itself
Chalgrove is a village in south Oxfordshire, situated approximately 9.5 miles from Oxford and 42.4 miles from London. Chalgrove sits in a low-lying area at an elevation of around 67 metres, surrounded by nearby places such as Warpsgrove and Great Holcombe. Chalgrove has a population of around 2056 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing.
Chalgrove and Oxfordshire: AdBlue drains across the area
As a rural village, Chalgrove shares its vans surrounding areas — Great Holcombe, Easington — all the way through OX postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. Quickest of all: quote a OX44 7 postcode to our van.
The car does not need to shift. We drain it where it is — a side street near St. Mary's Church, a lay-by on the way to Chalgrove Fields, a driveway. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Battle of Chalgrove Field (1643), ring and ask rather than assuming.
Chalgrove people: the short version
Pour nothing till you have read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave it off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere in Oxfordshire.