AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Cuddesdon: Why It Happens and How to Stop It
Stop here for a moment when your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and phone 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, done right where your car sits around Cuddesdon, is usually all it takes if found before your engine runs. Reading before the event? In that case what follows covers how it comes about and what to prevent it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Many modern diesels on the roads about Cuddesdon and Blenheim carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, where a spray treats the fumes.
There is a filler for every tank. Under one flap, side by side: that is the layout on a lot of motors. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in your boot instead. Topping up your diesel side at the pump happens all the time. Seldom topped up, AdBlue usually goes in from a bottle, tipped by someone who has to stop and think which filler to use. The mistake lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank take place around Cuddesdon?
It's rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out completely, your vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Church Close before work, or in the car park outside Bat and Ball on the way home.
Unfamiliar motors come next, too. Hire cars, new cars and company vehicles place their fillers differently, and the hand goes for the cap used on the old one.
A spouted bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, once begun, carries on. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Cuddesdon or out in Denton.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Be it a Cuddesdon forecourt or a drive over in Littleworth, take a few seconds on these before anything goes in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally is not. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Lift the flap and check for a label — plenty of cars show what belongs in each inlet right there.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler is if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Check when you pick up a rental or company car — at Radley's car park, perhaps — not once the light appears.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
The day the light goes on, anywhere across Oxfordshire, use this routine.
- Switch off after you park — flat ground, engine stopped, and not in a rush by Church Road at the roadside.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you have found your filler and read the cap.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before you start your car, shut the cap and check again that your diesel cap was never opened off.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Stage five is off limits.
Cuddesdon: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Short list, then. First: the engine remains unstarted. Leave the ignition off too, because on plenty of diesels it alone starts the pump. Diluting it with extra diesel won't work, since AdBlue settles to the base instead of blending — and that is where your fuel is drawn from.
On a forecourt — Asda, BP or another — the attendants will normally help push your car away, when you ask. On your own drive in Cuddesdon? So the vehicle stays put.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your motor has already run. Cuddesdon lies under 3 miles from the M40; on it, use the next exit. A short hop across Cuddesdon is a smaller job than a run towards Oxford, under 10 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
Our arrival around Cuddesdon, and what happens next
The van comes to the vehicle anywhere it has come to rest — your own drive, near Cuddesdon War Memorial, or by Garsington Church of England Primary School. We ask what went in, about how much, and whether it has run, because the replies determine the work and the price. During the call itself, you are told the price — ahead of dispatch.
After that: draining, then a thorough flush of the entire 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 doesn't wash out on its own. Once the filter is flushed — or replaced, where needed — clean diesel goes in, and then the car is tested. We do not leave until it has been fired up and is running properly.
With pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the motor has not run take about half an hour once we arrive. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents your insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Cuddesdon, for a moment
Cuddesdon is a small village in Oxfordshire, situated approximately 5.7 miles from Oxford and 45.6 miles from London. Cuddesdon sits in a rural area at an elevation of around 105 metres, surrounded by nearby villages such as Denton, Garsington, and Wheatley. Cuddesdon has a population of around 508 people and predominantly consists of semi-detached housing.
AdBlue drains around Cuddesdon and across Oxfordshire
As a rural village, Cuddesdon shares its vans surrounding areas — Garsington, Wheatley — right across OX postcodes and the wider area beyond. A postcode starting OX44 9 gets our van to you fastest.
Moving the vehicle isn't necessary. Draining happens right there, be it a drive, a street by Bishop Edward King Chapel, or a layby on the way to Coombe Wood. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of All Saints.
The short version for Cuddesdon people
Read the cap before you pour. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave it off and call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it waits, anywhere across Oxfordshire.