Church End: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case set this page aside for now, keep the ignition and engine off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Usually, when your engine has not run, it is emptied and fully purged where your vehicle is in Church End. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
No single fluid but two: that is what many newer diesels near Church End and Kingsey run, with diesel feeding the engine. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust stream and cleans it.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the arrangement on many cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. The diesel side is fuelled at the pump all the time. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less regularly. Mistakes happen in the gap between the two.
Church End: how AdBlue in the diesel tank happens
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, your vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off The Paddocks before work, or in the car park outside The Kings Head on the way home.
Unfamiliar motors are second, too. Hire cars, new cars and company motors place their fillers differently, and the hand reaches for the cap it used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the tip after it has started. Haddenham or the middle of Church End: it is the same few seconds either way.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Look at these first, on a forecourt around Church End or a drive over in Townsend. Seconds, no more.
- Read the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue ones are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally aren't.
- Many vehicles give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Open the filler flap and check for a label — many vehicles show what goes in which inlet just there.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by your diesel cap, it's 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 Haddenham & Thame Parkway, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
The day the light goes on, anywhere in Buckinghamshire, follow this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Station Road, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park and switch off properly.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" aloud while unscrewing it. It seems daft. It works.
- The two behind a single flap? Then make sure the lid on your diesel filler stays shut before raising the bottle.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the vehicle, close the cap and check again that the diesel cap never opened off.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Step five stays out.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Church End?
Do not start your motor: that's where the short order of things begins. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch the vehicle on. Thinning it with extra diesel won't work, since AdBlue settles to the bottom rather than mixing — and that is where the fuel is pulled from.
The attendants at Gulf, Esso or any forecourt will usually help pushing the car away if you ask. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive around Church End.
Where the motor has run by now, pull over somewhere safe then switch the car off. Come off the M40 — under 10 miles out of Church End — at the first junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Oxford, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Church End.
When our engineers arrive in Church End, what takes place?
Our van reaches the car wherever it stopped — your own driveway, beside St Mary's Centre, or by Haddenham St Mary's Church of England School. Which liquid got in, the quantity, and whether it ran: our technicians ask since the answers decide the work and quote. That quote comes on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
Emptying that tank comes next, then a thorough 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 the flush counts more here than with petrol. Testing is at the end: before that, clean diesel is added, and your filter is flushed or replaced as needed. Before we leave, our engineers start it and check that it is running correctly.
If the engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. No money in advance; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. Before we get there, have a look at your policy; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Church End and where it is
Church End is a suburban area in Buckinghamshire, situated inland at an elevation of 78 metres, and is located near the city of Oxford. Church End has a population of approximately 1953 residents and is characterized by predominantly detached housing. Church End is also close to nearby places such as Haddenham, Diggs, and Fort End, and is about 38.7 miles from London.
Church End and Buckinghamshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Being a residential suburb, Church End shares its vans surrounding places — Diggs, Fort End — all the way across HP postcodes and the wider area around them. Give a postcode that starts HP17 8, and the van gets there quickest.
Your car remains put. Wherever it stands — beside St Mary's, on a layby en route to Banks Park, on a drive — that is where it is drained. Guessing won't help at the back of The Good Shepherd, on a border, or anywhere awkward to describe; phone and check.
For Church End drivers, the short version
Read the cap before you tip. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will empty it where it stands, anywhere around Buckinghamshire: switch the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103.