AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Chesterton: How It Happens and How to Stop It
Stop reading for a moment when your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. Normally, if the motor hasn't run, it's emptied and fully cleaned where your car is around Chesterton. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the page covers the why it happens and the how to avoid it altogether.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Plenty of modern diesels in Bicester Village, like those in Chesterton, carry on two liquids; the engine gets only the diesel. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it.
Each tank has its own filler. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. Seldom topped up, AdBlue usually goes in from a bottle, tipped by someone who must stop and think what cap it needs. That gap is where the slip lives.
Chesterton: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
Carelessness seldom explains it. Instead is three things coming up together.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the car goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Orchard Rise before work, or in the car park outside The Red Cow on the way home.
Then the vehicle is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Third, the bottle fits: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in just as readily, and after the tip begins, no part halts it. Little Chesterton or the heart of Chesterton: it takes the same few seconds in both.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A few seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Kings End or a forecourt around Chesterton.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Trust the cap, not its position.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of motors, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on many motors. Look for it.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by the diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Ask as you collect a hire car or fleet car — from Bicester Village's car park, say — not when the warning comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
When the light comes on, anywhere around Oxfordshire, use this routine.
- Switch off once parked — level ground, engine stopped, and not rushed beside Bignell View at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" aloud while unscrewing it. It seems silly. It works.
- Both behind a single flap? Then confirm the lid on your diesel side is still closed ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Stop once your tank fills or the bottle runs dry; before that, tip slowly through the own spout.
- Close the cap, then check again — confirm the diesel filler remained shut throughout. After that, start the vehicle.
Spot at stage two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? So stop just there. Skip step five entirely.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Chesterton?
Short list, then. Top of that: your engine remains off. Do not switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
The attendants at Esso, Tesco or another forecourt will usually help to push your car away if you ask. Your own driveway in Chesterton is where it should stay.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. The next junction is the place to come off when you're on the M40, under a mile from Chesterton. A short hop across Chesterton is a smaller job than a run towards Oxford, under 15 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
What happens when we arrive around Chesterton
By Chesterton Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School, near Saint Mary or on your own driveway: wherever the vehicle has stopped, we come to it. We ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it has run, since those replies decide the work and our price. During the phone call itself, you hear our quote — ahead of dispatch.
Emptying your tank comes next, then a full flush of the fuel system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Before leaving, our engineers fire it up and make sure that it's running smoothly.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour once our engineers get there, as long as your engine has not run — and the pumps we use are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet at night beside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Before we get there, have a look at your policy; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Chesterton, briefly
Chesterton is a small village in Oxfordshire, situated approximately 10 miles from Oxford and 52.6 miles from London. Chesterton sits in a low-lying area at an elevation of around 78 metres, surrounded by nearby places such as Little Chesterton, Greenwood, and Wendlebury. Chesterton has a population of around 530 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing.
AdBlue drains round Chesterton, and Oxfordshire beyond
Chesterton is a rural village, and our teams that cover it also work the places around it, Greenwood and Wendlebury among them, across the OX postcode area. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting OX26 1.
Your car stays put. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Chesterton Playing Field, a side street near Chesterton Community Centre: we drain the vehicle where it is. Guessing doesn't help at the back of Bicester Performance Centre, on a boundary, or anywhere hard to describe; ring and ask.
The short version for Chesterton motorists
Before you pour, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere around Oxfordshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless — and so leave it off and call 0333 366 0103.