How It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Cogges
Keep your engine and ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Caught before the motor runs, it is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Cogges. The remainder of this page covers why it takes place and how to make sure it does not — handy if you are reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Many newer diesels on the roads round Cogges and Witney carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, and there spraying treats the fumes.
There's a filler for every tank. Plenty of cars have a single flap for both, whereas some put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, the diesel side is topped up all the time. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less often. It is in that gap that the slip happens.
Cogges: how AdBlue in the diesel tank happens
It is rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Haste follows from the warning. Your car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a driveway off Cogges Hill Road, or on the way home in the car park outside Griffin Inn.
The old car's cap is where the hand reaches — yet a hire car, a new motor or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That's the second thing: a new car.
A spout-topped bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, after begun, carries on. Whether it takes place in Newland or the middle of Cogges, it is the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Check these before pouring, on a forecourt in Cogges or a drive out in Woodgreen. Seconds, no more.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually do not.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of motors, the AdBlue one.
- Open the flap and look for a label — plenty of vehicles mark which goes in each filler just there.
- Can't find it beside the diesel inlet? Then look below the bonnet or in your boot — the owner's manual says where.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Combe? Check with the person who drove it last before you set off, not once the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Oxfordshire that is.
- Pull in on level, engine off, with time to spare — never rushing on the side of Oxlease.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you have located your filler and read it.
- 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.
- Only after that, start your car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Spot at stage two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? Then stop just there. Don't carry on to stage five.
Cogges: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the engine. Do not switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel will not dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the bottom of your tank, right where the fuel is taken from.
On a forecourt — Esso, Shell or another — the staff will normally help push your car clear, if you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway in Cogges.
Already run? Pull over when it's safe, then turn off. On the M40, under 15 miles from Cogges, that means the next junction. A short hop across Cogges is a smaller job than a run towards Oxford, under 10 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
What takes place when our technicians get there around Cogges
We come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside The Blake Church of England Primary School, near Kingdom Hall or on your own drive. The replies decide this work and our price, and so our engineers ask what was put in, about how much, and whether it has run. Nobody sets off until you have heard the quote over the phone.
After that: a drain, then a full flush of the whole 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. Filter flushed or, where needed, replaced; fresh diesel in; and then a test of the vehicle. The engine is started next and tested to be sure it runs properly, all before our engineers leave.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour once our technicians get there, provided your motor hasn't run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a busy forecourt yet 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. Misfuelling cover is included in many insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Cogges itself
Cogges is a suburban area in Oxfordshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 88 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Cogges lies approximately 9.4 miles from Oxford and 60.6 miles from London, making it a commuter-friendly location. Cogges is surrounded by nearby places such as Newland, Shores Green, and High Cogges, and has a population of around 3031 residents. Cogges forms part of the wider Oxford urban area, with its riverside setting providing scenic views and walks.
AdBlue drains around Cogges, and Oxfordshire beyond
Cogges is a residential suburb, and our teams that cover it also work the places around it, Shores Green and High Cogges among them, across the OX postcode area. A postcode starting OX28 3 gets the van to you fastest.
The car doesn't need to shift. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Oxlease Park, a side street near Cogges Manor Farm Museum: our technicians drain the vehicle where it is. Tricky to pin down, like the back of Cogges Manor? By a border? Asking beats guessing, and so phone.
Cogges drivers: the short version
Always, the cap; after that, the pour. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave the vehicle off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it sits, anywhere across Oxfordshire.