Cumnor Hill: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Leave your motor and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Usually, when the motor has not run, it's drained and thoroughly purged where your car sits in Cumnor Hill. Not happened yet? Below, the page covers the why it takes place and the ways to avoid it altogether.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
No single liquid but two: that's how plenty of newer diesels near Cumnor Hill and Harcourt Hill carry, with diesel for the engine. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, and there spraying cleans the fumes.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Under one flap, side by side: that's the arrangement on many motors. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in your boot instead. The diesel side is filled at the petrol pump all the time. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less frequently, normally from a bottle, and usually by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place in Cumnor Hill
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
On a driveway off Cumnor Hill before work, or in the car park at The Seacourt Bridge heading home: that's where the hurried top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low the car warns you, and if it is gone, limp mode follows.
The old car's filler is where the hand reaches — yet a rental car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That is a second thing: an unfamiliar vehicle.
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. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Cumnor Hill or out in Dean Court.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Look at these first, at a forecourt in Cumnor Hill or a drive over in North Hinksey Village. A few seconds, that's all.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually is not. Read it instead of going by position.
- The size. On plenty of motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Look for it.
- Can't find it next to the diesel filler? Then check below the bonnet or in your boot — the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Ask as you pick up a hire car or fleet car — at Oxford's car park, perhaps — not once the light appears.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
On the day the light comes on — anywhere it is in Oxfordshire — a routine to use.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Hid's Copse Road.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap works — once you have located the filler and read the cap.
- The diesel cap stays on. When both sit under a flap, make sure it's shut before lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, then look once more — making sure your diesel cap stayed shut the whole time. After that, start the vehicle.
Discover during the second or third stage that the bottle went in the diesel tank? That is where you stop. Don't go on to step five.
Cumnor Hill: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
The short order of things, beginning with not starting the engine. Keep your ignition off too, because on plenty of diesels it alone starts the pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is drawn from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
On a forecourt — the nearest petrol station, BP or any other — the attendants will usually help push your car away, if you ask. Your own driveway around Cumnor Hill is where it stays.
Already started? Pull over when it is safe, then turn off. On the Wheatley Spur, under 10 miles from Cumnor Hill, that means the next junction. A short hop across Cumnor Hill is a smaller job than a run towards Oxford, under 3 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
Our arrival around Cumnor Hill, and what happens next
We come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Botley School, close to Dean Court Community Centre or on your own drive. What liquid got in, the amount, and if it ran: our engineers ask since the replies set the work and price. The quote comes on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
Draining that tank comes next, then a full flush of the fuel system. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and neither clears away unaided. That is why it counts more. A test comes at the end: before that, clean diesel is added, and your filter is flushed or replaced as needed. Your engine is fired up next and checked to make sure it runs smoothly, all before we head off.
Unrun vehicles usually need a half-hour visit after arrival. The kit is safe on a live forecourt, and quiet enough for a residential street late at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — and so use the wait to look at yours.
About Cumnor Hill, for a moment
Cumnor Hill is a suburban area located on the outskirts of Oxford, situated in the inland county of Oxfordshire. Cumnor Hill sits at an elevation of 115 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation in the area. Cumnor Hill is close to nearby places such as Dean Court, Chawley, and Botley, and is approximately 2.3 miles from Oxford city centre. Cumnor Hill has a population of around 2608 residents.
AdBlue drains across Oxfordshire, Cumnor Hill included
Chawley and Botley are among the towns near Cumnor Hill, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, throughout OX postcodes. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting OX2 9.
Your car does not need to move. We drain it where it is — a side street near St Andrew's, a lay-by on the way to Hid's Copse, a drive. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Westminster Sports Centre.
For Cumnor Hill motorists, the short version
Pour no AdBlue until you've read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Keep the vehicle switched off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, across Oxfordshire.