Why It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Chapel Green
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and your ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Chapel Green. Nothing happened yet? Below, the rest of the page covers the reasons it takes place and the how to prevent it for good.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Many newer diesels on the roads about Chapel Green and Gardeners Green carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, where spraying treats the fumes.
Different tanks, different fillers. Plenty of motors have a single flap for both, whereas some move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled at each filling station call-out, again and again. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less frequently. It is in the gap that the slip lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Chapel Green: how it occurs
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
On a drive off Ludgrove before work, or in the car park outside The Two Poplars on the way home: that's where the rushed top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low your car warns you, and once it is empty, limp mode kicks in.
Then, your hand goes for the cap it knew on the old car — because a rental car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't.
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. Eastheath or the heart of Chapel Green: it is the same few seconds in both.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A few seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a drive in Holme Green or a forecourt in Chapel Green.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Go by the cap, not its position.
- The size. On plenty of cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Check for it.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by the diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Wokingham.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
Anywhere in Berkshire the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Turn off once parked — flat ground, engine stopped, and not in a rush by Luckley Road on the verge.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, yes, yet it works.
- The two behind one flap? So confirm the lid on your diesel side is still closed before raising the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start the car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Find at stage two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? So stop just there. Stage five is out.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Chapel Green?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your engine. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch it on. Topping up with diesel will not thin it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the base of that tank, just where fuel is drawn from.
The staff at Tesco, BP or any forecourt will normally help to push your car away when you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway around Chapel Green.
When your engine has been run already, stop safely and switch the vehicle off. The next junction is the place to come off when you're on the A329(M), under 3 miles from Chapel Green. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Chapel Green is smaller work than a trip of under 50 miles towards Oxford, and so tell us.
Our arrival in Chapel Green, and what takes place next
Outside Evendons Primary School, close to Carnival Hub or on your own driveway: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our engineers come to it. The replies decide the work and our quote, so our technicians ask what went in, roughly how much, and if it's run. You hear that price on the phone, before anyone sets off.
After that: a drain, then a full flush of the entire system. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own. Testing is at the end: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and the fuel filter is flushed or replaced as needed. We don't go until it has been started and is running properly.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour after our engineers get there, provided your motor hasn't run — and the pumps our engineers use are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet after dark beside a house. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork an insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Chapel Green, for a moment
Chapel Green is a small hamlet situated on the riverside in Berkshire, with an elevation of 56 metres. Chapel Green lies near the villages of Eastheath and Wokingham, and is also close to The Throat. Chapel Green has a population of around 584 people, predominantly living in detached houses. Chapel Green is located approximately 31 miles from London and 30 miles from Oxford, making it a rural outpost in the South East region.
Chapel Green and Berkshire: AdBlue drains across the area
As a rural hamlet, Chapel Green has the same vans as nearby places — Wokingham, The Throat — all the way through RG postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting RG40 3.
Your car stays where it is. Wherever it stands — beside Wokingham Library, in a layby heading to Langborough Recreation Ground, at home — that is where it is emptied. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Corpus Christi, ring and ask instead of assuming.
The short version for Chapel Green drivers
Always, the cap; then, the pour. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Keep the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, throughout Berkshire.