Chicksands: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Pause here for a moment if the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Chicksands. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of modern diesels on the roads around Chicksands and Meppershall carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. The exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the gas to fresh it, from a separate tank.
There is a filler for every tank. Under one flap, side by side: that is the arrangement on many vehicles. On others, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in the boot instead. Diesel goes in on each filling station visit, week in, week out. The AdBlue side is filled far less commonly, normally from a bottle, and normally by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake grows in the gap between them.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank happens in Chicksands
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
On a driveway off J F Kennedy Drive before work, or in the car park at The White Hart heading home: that is where the hurried top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low your car warns you, and if it is empty, limp mode kicks in.
The old car's cap is where the hand goes — yet a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That is the second factor: an unfamiliar car.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the pour once it has started. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Chicksands or out in Campton.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Whether a Chicksands forecourt or a drive over in Ireland, take a couple of seconds over these before any goes in.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones are often blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually do not.
- The size. On plenty of motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Lift the flap and check for a label — plenty of cars mark which belongs in each inlet just there.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler sits if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Ask as you collect a hire car or company car — from Arlesey's car park, perhaps — rather than when the light appears.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
When the light goes on, anywhere around Bedfordshire, follow this routine.
- Switch off after you park — flat ground, motor off, and not in a rush by Wyton Court on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" out loud while unscrewing it. It sounds daft. It does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, then check once more — making sure your diesel filler stayed shut the whole time. Only then, start the car.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Do not go on to stage five.
Chicksands: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Do not start your engine: that's where the short order of things starts. Keep the ignition off as well, because on many diesels it by itself starts the pump. Filling up with diesel will not dilute it: instead, AdBlue drops to the base of that tank, right where fuel is drawn from.
The attendants at JET, Esso or another forecourt will normally help pushing the car clear when you ask. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway in Chicksands.
Already started? Stop once it's sensible, then turn off. Chicksands sits under 10 miles from the A1(M); on it, use the next junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Milton Keynes, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Chicksands.
Chicksands: what takes place when our engineers arrive
Outside Campton Academy, close to DITG Theatre or on your own driveway: wherever the car has stopped, our technicians come to it. Both the work and the price depend on three answers — which fluid, which amount, and whether it has run — so our technicians ask. The quote is given over the phone, before any van leaves.
The system is then rinsed thoroughly, after that tank is emptied. Much more than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: the crystals build up, some metals corrode, and nothing clears away unaided, no matter how long it is left. Once the fuel filter has been flushed — or replaced, where needed — clean diesel goes in, and finally the vehicle is tested. The motor is started next and checked to be sure it runs properly, all before our technicians leave.
Using pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where the motor hasn't run take about half an hour after our technicians arrive. Nothing upfront; you settle up that day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is part of many insurance policies — and so use the wait to look at yours.
About Chicksands, for a moment
Chicksands is a village in Bedfordshire, situated on the banks of the River Ivel at an elevation of around 45 metres. Chicksands lies near the villages of Campton and Shefford, and is within commuting distance of Milton Keynes. Chicksands has a mix of housing types, with terraced houses being particularly prevalent. Chicksands is located approximately 37.9 miles from London, making it a potential base for those working in the capital.
AdBlue drains around Chicksands, and Bedfordshire beyond
Being a village, Chicksands shares its vans nearby areas — Shefford, Beadlow — all the way through SG postcodes and the wider area beyond. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting SG17 5.
The vehicle doesn't need to move. We drain it where it is — a side street close to All Saints, a lay-by on the way to Campton Plantation, a driveway. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Military Intelligence Museum? By a county line? Checking beats guessing, so phone.
In short, for Chicksands motorists
Tip no AdBlue till you have read the cap. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it wherever it is, wherever around Bedfordshire: switch the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103.