How It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Desborough
Stop here for a moment if the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then call 0333 366 0103. Around Desborough, catching it before your engine turns normally leaves a drain and a thorough flush where it stands. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel feeds the motor — yet plenty of current diesels seen about Desborough and Orton hold another liquid too. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust stream and cleans it.
Each tank has its own filler. Many of cars share a single flap for both, while some move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Topping up your diesel side at the petrol pump happens all the time. Far less regularly, the AdBlue side is topped up — normally from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. The error lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank occur around Desborough?
It's seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Haste comes from the warning. The vehicle warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a driveway off Station Road, or on the way home in the car park outside The George.
The old car's cap is where the hand reaches — yet a rental car, a new car or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That is a second factor: an unfamiliar car.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the pour after it has started. It takes seconds, whether in Rothwell or right in the centre of Desborough.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Rushton or a forecourt in Desborough, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally isn't. Read it rather than going by position.
- The size. On plenty of motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Lift the flap and check for a label — many cars mark what belongs in each filler just there.
- Can't see it next to the diesel inlet? In that case look beneath the bonnet or inside the boot — the handbook will say where.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park at Market Harborough? Ask the person who drove the vehicle last before leaving, rather than when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
When the light goes on, wherever around Northamptonshire, use this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Buckwell Close, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park then switch off properly.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" out loud as unscrewing it. It sounds daft. It does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Finish when your tank fills or the bottle is empty; until then, tip gently using the built-in spout.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Discover at the second or third stage that the bottle went in the wrong filler? That is where you stop. Leave out step five entirely.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Desborough?
Short order, then. First: the motor stays unstarted. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch the car on. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is sucked from.
On a forecourt — BP, another forecourt nearby or another — the staff will usually help push the vehicle clear, when you ask. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway in Desborough.
Already run? Pull over once it is sensible, then switch off. Leave the M6 — under 15 miles out of Desborough — at the next exit. A short hop across Desborough is a smaller job than a run towards Leicester, under 25 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
Desborough: what happens when our technicians get there
Our engineers come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Havelock Infant School, near Desborough Cross or on your own driveway. Both the work and the quote rest on three replies — what liquid, which quantity, and if it has run — so we ask. You hear that quote on the phone, before anyone sets off.
Emptying your tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. Testing is at the end: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and the filter is flushed or replaced if necessary. The engine is fired up next and checked to be sure it runs correctly, all before we leave.
Unrun vehicles usually need a half-hour job from the moment we arrive. The equipment is safe on a busy forecourt, and quiet enough for a driveway late at night. The insurer will ask for the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours once this job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. It's worth looking at your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Desborough
Desborough is a town in Northamptonshire, situated in the East Midlands region of England, with a population of around 11899 people. Desborough sits at an elevation of 127 metres, approximately 18.6 miles from Leicester and 71 miles from London. Desborough is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, and is located near to nearby places such as Rothwell, Thorpe Underwood, and Braybrooke. Desborough remains a residential community with a mix of local amenities and services.
AdBlue drains across Northamptonshire, Desborough included
Desborough is a town, and our teams that cover it also work the places around it, Thorpe Underwood and Braybrooke among them, across the NN postcode area. Fastest of all: give a NN14 2 postcode for our van.
The car remains where it is. The drain takes place on the spot, be it a driveway, a street by Desborough Library, or a lay-by towards Millenium Green. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Marlow House, ring and ask instead of guessing.
For Desborough people, the short version
Always, the cap; after that, the pour. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will empty it wherever it stands, wherever in Northamptonshire: keep it off and ring 0333 366 0103.