AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Cumnor: Why It Occurs and How to Stop It
Stop reading for a moment when the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before your motor runs, it is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Cumnor. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page explains the reasons it occurs and the how to avoid it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Not one liquid but two: that is what many modern diesels around Cumnor and Cumnor Hill run, with diesel feeding your motor. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust stream to clean it.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the arrangement on many motors. On others, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. At the pump, your diesel side gets filled constantly. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less commonly. The mistake lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank occur around Cumnor?
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the car drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off High Street before work, or in the car park at The Bear and Ragged Staff on the way home.
Then the car is new. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Lastly, the spout fits: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in just as easily, and after the pour begins, no part halts it. It takes a few seconds, whether in Chawley or bang in the centre of Cumnor.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Bessels Leigh or a forecourt around Cumnor, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones are often blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually don't.
- On plenty of motors, the size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows which it lives if your filler is not next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Oxford.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Oxfordshire that is.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Appleton Road.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap works — after you've found the 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.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Don't go on to stage five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Cumnor?
Brief list, then. First: your engine remains off. Keep the ignition off too, since on many diesels it by itself runs your pump. Thinning it with more diesel won't work, because AdBlue settles to the bottom instead of mixing — and that is where your fuel is pulled from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it is the the nearest petrol station or the BP, ask the attendants to help roll the car away from the pump. If you're on your own drive in Cumnor, leave the vehicle where it stands.
Already run? Stop once it's sensible, then switch off. On the Wheatley Spur, under 10 miles from Cumnor, that means the next junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Oxford, under 5 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Cumnor.
Our arrival around Cumnor, and what occurs next
Our van reaches the vehicle wherever it has come to rest — your own drive, beside Cumnor "Old School Hall", or outside Cumnor Church of England School (Voluntary Controlled). Which fluid went in, the amount, and whether it ran: our technicians ask since those replies decide both work and price. During the phone call itself, you are told the price — before anything else.
Then the tank is drained and the system purged thoroughly. More than with petrol, it matters here: the crystals build up, certain metals corrode, and nothing washes out unaided, however long it is left. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. We do not go until it has been started and is running correctly.
If your motor hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents an insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — so use the wait to check yours.
About Cumnor itself
Cumnor is a village in Oxfordshire, situated approximately 3.5 miles west of Oxford, and is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock. Cumnor sits in a rural area at an elevation of around 111 metres, near the villages of Chawley, Eaton, and Filchampstead. Cumnor is a relatively small community with a population of around 1113 residents, and is located about 54 miles from London.
Cumnor and Oxfordshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Cumnor is a rural village, and our teams that cover it also work the towns near it, Eaton and Filchampstead among them, across the OX postcode area. Give a postcode beginning OX2 9, and our van arrives quickest.
Moving the vehicle is not necessary. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street near St. Michael's Church Cumnor, a lay-by on the way to Cumnor Cricket Club, a driveway. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Cumnor URC Church, ring and ask rather than guessing.
Cumnor people: the short version
First, the cap; then, the pour. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Leave the car switched off then phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, throughout Oxfordshire.