How It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Crownhill
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case set this page down for now, keep the ignition and engine off, and phone 0333 366 0103. In Crownhill, finding it before the engine runs usually leaves a drain and a thorough flush on the spot. The remainder of this page explains why it happens and how to make sure it does not — handy if you're reading before it has happened.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
No single fluid but two: that's how many newer diesels around Crownhill and Shenley Church End run, with diesel for the engine. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust stream to clean it.
Each tank has its own filler. Other vehicles keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others place both together under one flap. Topping up the diesel side at the petrol pump happens constantly. Rarely topped up, AdBlue normally comes out of a bottle, tipped by a driver who must stop and think which filler it needs. Mistakes happen in the gap between the two.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs around Crownhill
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
Haste comes from the warning. The vehicle tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a driveway off Rathbone Close, or on the way home in the car park outside Sportsmens Rest.
The old car's filler is where your hand reaches — but a hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That is the second factor: a new vehicle.
Lastly, the spout goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in just as easily, and once the pour starts, no part stops it. Grange Farm or the heart of Crownhill: it takes the same few seconds in both.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
A few seconds is all these take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a drive in Hazeley or a forecourt around Crownhill.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually isn't. Read it instead of going by position.
- Many motors fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows which it lives when your filler is not next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at Milton Keynes Central, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
Anywhere around Buckinghamshire the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Stop somewhere level, motor off, with time to spare — never hurried on the side of Cochran Close.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, yes, yet it works.
- Both behind one flap? So make sure the lid on your diesel filler stays shut before lifting the bottle.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Find at the second or third step that AdBlue went in the diesel tank? That's where you stop. Don't go on to stage five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Crownhill?
The short order of things, starting with not starting your engine. Leave your ignition off too, because on many diesels it by itself starts the pump. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
Ask the attendants to help roll the car away from the pump if you're on a forecourt — the BP, the Shell or anywhere else. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive in Crownhill.
Where the motor has been run already, stop somewhere safe and turn the car off. Come off the M1 — under 5 miles out of Crownhill — at the next exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Milton Keynes, under 3 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Crownhill.
Our arrival around Crownhill, and what takes place next
Our van comes to the vehicle wherever it stopped — your own driveway, near Crownhill Meeting Place, or outside Christ the Sower Ecumenical Primary School. What fluid got in, the amount, and if it ran: we ask because the answers decide both work and price. On the phone call itself, you hear the price — before dispatch.
Next: a drain, then a thorough flush of the whole system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and neither washes out by itself. Hence it matters more. After your filter has been cleaned — or replaced, if required — clean diesel is added, and finally the vehicle is tested. Before we go, we fire it up and confirm that it is running smoothly.
If your motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. No money upfront; you settle up that day. At the end, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. Misfuelling cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — so use the wait to check yours.
About Crownhill
Crownhill is a suburban area located in Buckinghamshire, situated approximately 2.3 miles from Milton Keynes and 46.1 miles northwest of London. Crownhill sits at an elevation of around 102 metres, characterised by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock. Crownhill is near several other local places, including Grange Farm, Medbourne, and Great Holm, and has a population of around 5037 residents.
Crownhill and Buckinghamshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Crownhill is a residential suburb, and our teams that cover it also work the towns near it, Medbourne and Great Holm among them, across the MK postcode area. Fastest of all: give a MK8 0 postcode for the van.
Shifting your car is not necessary. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street close to Oakhill Moat, a lay-by on the way to Hazeley Wood, a driveway. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Seedlings Children's Centre, ring and ask instead of assuming.
Crownhill people: the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Keep it off then call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, across Buckinghamshire.